A Spartan Encounter
by Fifth Horseman
Summary: Another AU for the Chance Encounter Universe.
1. The Invincible, Lonely Girl

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

Felt like doing another 'Encounter' AU side story. I've had this idea for a while, just not the manner in which I wanted to execute it. And, I needed a little break from the thought process of A Chance Encounter.

This will be at least three chapters, maybe more. It has already surpassed my original thoughts as I've gotten int it. When I'm done with this I will resume working on A Chance Encounter.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 1: The Invincible, Lonely Girl**_

You would think that being good at something and being successful at it would help to enhance one's social standing and not place it into a downward spiral, but that seemed to be exactly where the social fortunes of a fifteen year old Pyrrha Nikos were going. She was pretty, with long flaming red hair and vivid green eyes. She was smart, getting some of the highest marks in her entire school and was generally a friendly and warm person. She was an excellent athlete, tall with a physique that put her peers to shame and she was strong. As a Huntress in training she was at the top of her class at Sanctum Academy. Becoming a Huntress was her dream and she worked hard to be in shape and to hone her skills.

A month ago she had won the Mistral Regional Tournament for the second year in a row, her win the year before being remarkable since she was the only first year student to ever win it. That seemed to have been when her social decline had started. Her skills and potential had begun to show at a young age but as she progressed and got better no one had ever treated her any differently. She had always remained the same person, never thinking herself to be better than anyone else and quite frankly, all of her accomplishments and accolades aside, she was the type of girl that should have been surrounded by friends. The type of person that everyone liked.

But after that first win at the MRT, something changed. People began to start distancing themselves from her. It wasn't highly noticeable at first but she soon began to hear the whispers. She was becoming a bit of a celebrity and people began elevating her above themselves and convincing themselves that she was moving beyond their reach. She thought that was ridiculous. She wasn't any better than any of them and never thought that she was. She was still the same girl that she had always been.

As more demands were made on her time, she had less time to try and dissuade people from that way of thinking and to work to hang onto the relationships that she had. After winning the tournament again the problem seemed to grow exponentially. She began to feel isolated and lonely and it hurt. Even people she had been doing physical training with had drifted away from her and that was how she found herself going for her evening run all alone now and it was why she was currently sitting atop the wall that ringed her hometown of Argus. She wore her red and white Sanctum track suit, her arms were wrapped around her legs, chin resting on her knees, and a torrent of tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.

Off to her left was the big hill that led to the forest outside the city, well off to the right was the bright lights of the Atlas military outpost, but she wasn't really seeing any of it. What if the problem wasn't with everyone else but really was with her? What if it wasn't their perceptions concerning her that had changed, but it was her attitude and how she was acting that was different? She didn't think that she had changed but what if she had? She was lonely and she hated it, it hurt so badly and she didn't know what to do. The held tears began to slowly leak from her eyes.

"What have I done wrong?" she sobbed quietly. "What did I do to drive everyone away from me?"

_"You didn't do anything wrong,"_ a strong, clear male voice spoke.

Startled, she shot to her feet and frantically looked around, but saw nobody. She took a defensive stance, ready to fight if need be. "Who's there? Where are you?"

_"Not anywhere that you can see me,"_ the voice answered, sounding slightly amused. _"Since I'm inside your head."_

"What?!" She came to a stop but still kept her guard up. "That's not possible."

_"It's not only possible, it's happening."_

_'I know I'm lonely but I can't be so far gone that I'm making up an imaginary voice to talk to,'_ she thought.

_"You're right,"_ the voice said, making her eyes go wide. _"You are lonely but you haven't gone that close to the edge yet. I'm very much real."_

"I didn't say that out loud," she gasped, a hint of panic starting to creep into her voice. "T-there's no way you could know what I was thinking unless..."

_"Unless I really am in your head,"_ he finished calmly. _"Look, you don't need to panic,especially since you're standing on top of the wall and it's a nasty drop. You're not going crazy and I'm not going to harm you. You're getting shaky so why don't you sit back down and just take a couple of deep breaths and calm down."_

"That...sounds like a good idea," she rasped. She dropped, landing on her butt with a thump and concentrated on getting her breathing under control.

_"Not the most graceful landing but it'll do,"_ the voice chided with humour. _"I didn't mean to startle you but unfortunately there's no way that you weren't going to be the first time you heard my voice no matter when it was."_

"That makes sense I suppose," she conceded. "But this is...how is this even possible?"

_"You're familiar with the theory of reincarnation,"_ he stated as much as asked.

"Yes," she answered. "The souls of the departed are reborn into a new life in a repeating cycle."

_"Exactly, and you and I are proof that it's not just a theory but a fact,"_ he confirmed. _"We did things just a little bit differently though."_

"Because we are able to communicate with each other?" she supposed.

_"That and the fact that the reincarnated soul normally doesn't remember any of its past lives,"_ he answered. _"It isn't even aware that it had any past lives or even what it is. Usually the most that will happen is you might have an area of knowledge that you have a strong affinity for, or a set of physical abilities that come to you naturally, like it's second nature. Things that you're good at might very well be based on a bleed through of the soul's past experiences."_

"Were you a Huntsman before?" she asked. Her own fighting abilities seemed to come so naturally to her that she felt it was a logical assumption to make.

_"My last life was a very long time ago,"_ he said, a hint of sadness and something else in his voice. Regret maybe? _"Long before Huntsmen or Huntresses or even the Grimm. Before this world became so aptly named."_

Her brow scrunched in puzzlement. "What does that mean?"

_"That's a story for later after the shock of this wears off and you're used to my presence,"_ he answered. _"Don't want to overwhelm you _too_ much."_

"That's not ominous at all," she groused.

_"It's history,"_ he sighed. _"It happened and there's nothing to be done about it except maybe to learn from it. It's really not anything to worry over."_

"Why don't I feel reassured by that?" she asked suspiciously.

_"Maybe because you're talking to a voice in your head that you didn't know existed until five minutes ago, so you're feeling a little paranoid?"_

"Ugh!" She propped her elbows on her knees and cradled her head in her hands. "Still not sure that I haven't lost my sanity," she muttered before going silent for a few moments. "So, why didn't you speak to me before now?" she asked, the tint of loneliness returning to her voice.

_"I tried to, quite often actually, but you weren't able to hear me before this,"_ he answered softly.

"Do you know why I can finally hear you now?"

_"It could be because of your loneliness, or it could be because the amount of your spiritual power that you have access to has grown enough,"_ he surmised. _"Your Aura has been getting stronger and that is the power of your soul, or at least what you can actually access. Training with and using your Aura, even physical training for that matter all contribute the growth of the strength of your soul's power."_

"Wait, you said 'or at least what I can access'. What does that mean exactly?"

_"The potential energy of a soul can be enormous but most people never even come close to being able to accessing it, if they can even use it at all." _He paused for a moment._ "In my previous life I had a ridiculous amount of spiritual energy, I never got to truly find out just how powerful I really was or even how to really use it all that well. As far as I know I...we...still have that energy. Who knows, it may have even had an influence on how you can hear me, maybe even why I have all of the memories of that past life. I really don't know how it all works. One of my old mentors though would probably be able to figure it out in a snap."_

"How old were you when you...when you died?" she asked hesitantly, feeling a certain amount of guilt for asking.

_"Only two years older than you are now,"_ he answered. _"I had monsters to fight too, monsters a lot worse than the Grimm and I didn't get a lot of training to do it. Had to learn on the job. The end of that fight led to the beginning of this world, but like I said before, that's a story for later."_

"You will tell me though, right?" she asked, a little worried that he was just putting her off.

_"Of course."_ There was a smile evident in the tone of his voice. _"You deserve to know and I won't keep anything secret from you."_

"That's only fair," she agreed. "Since I obviously won't be able to keep any secrets from you."

_"And you won't be alone anymore either,"_ he said seriously.

"I...thank you," she whispered. "So, what should I call you? I mean, I know you're essentially me, but you're also you...gah!...that's going to tie my brain in a knot!"

He chuckled. _"I get what you mean and it was rude of me not to introduce myself before. Pyrrha Nikos, I'm glad to finally meet you. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."_

* * *

Her jog back home was a bit of a distracted one for obvious reasons. Reincarnation. It was a subject that she had never given much thought to or really formed an opinion on one way or another. She had read a few articles about the concept and had once watched a spirited debate about it on a nightly discussion panel show where they debated everything from current events in the news to 'are aliens among us'. Serious and informative or just ridiculous, at least the show was entertaining.

To think though that reincarnation was real was more than a bit of a shock and the fact that the soul that had reincarnated to become her was actually aware of its past life...and that she could talk to it...that was mind blowing. Unless she had missed something the duality of Ichigo being her soul and still essentially being himself from his past life didn't seem to bother him. It was kind of sad to think that he had only been seventeen when he died and that he had been fighting monsters even worse that what she would be facing. She knew that the life she was training for was a dangerous one, but this just kind of made it hit home a little bit harder.

What he'd said about Remnant being an apt name for the world, that worried her. The seemingly obvious interpretation was that this world was what remained of a previous one and if that was the case, what happened to it? How long ago did it happen? Was that event what cost Ichigo his previous life? He had said that it wasn't anything she needed to be concerned about, that it was just a piece of history. That suggested that whatever had happened posed no danger now.

She may be young but she wasn't stupid and she knew that if you ignored history you just might find yourself repeating it and that was rarely ever a good thing. Fortunately she actually liked the subject of history and even this early in her Huntress training it was drilled into her head by her instructors that you ignored the past, and even current events for that matter, at your own peril. Information was just as much of a tool for a Huntress as her weapons were and only a fool would not make use of it.

She stopped running about a block from her house and walked the rest of the way as part of her cool down routine. He had been right though about not wanting to tell her about it until she'd had time process this and start getting used to him being there. She highly doubted that she would be in the right frame of mind to absorb and deal with what he would tell her right now. It probably really would be too much too soon, but that didn't mean that she wasn't curious about it. The idea of knowing something that no one else in the world did was pretty tantalizing but it could also end up being a case of 'be careful what you wish for'.

Unzipping the pocket in her jacket, she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. Her parents were out visiting friends so she would have the house to herself for a few more hours. After kicking off her shoes and setting them aside she went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from a pitcher in the fridge. After a shower she would finish a bit of homework she had and then maybe watch a movie. She had all weekend to finish the schoolwork but she preferred to get it done and out of the way.

Of course, it wasn't like she had anything else to do on the weekend, other than what she usually did which was train. She'd never had very much of a social life as it was and what little she did have had disappeared along with anyone that may have qualified as a friend. Now in its place she could use the time to study or train, or both. Gods, that sounded so pathetic.

Her mother would probably tell her to relax a little, maybe walk around town or do a little shopping but she wasn't sure that her mother was grasping the concept of what was going on around her daughter and how lonely it was making her. People her age usually went and did things like that with their friends and there was a time when she did as well but that time apparently was now gone. Along with it so was most of the enjoyment she would have gotten from a day out. She sighed. Maybe she should anyway, it _had_ been a while since she had taken a day just for herself.

She cleaned her glass and put it away then jogged upstairs to her room. Unlike many of her peers her room was neat and tidy and there were no posters or pictures adorning the walls. There was a neatly made bed, a large dresser and a bookcase, and in front of the window that overlooked the street in front of the house was the desk where she did her homework. Across from the end of her bed was a cabinet with a decent sized television that saw a moderate amount of use.

Taking off her track suit she laid it on the bed, she could hang it back up in the closet later. Gathering her bathing supplies, some clean underwear and her pyjamas, she padded quickly down the hall to the shower. Setting the clothes next to the sink, she placed her bathing supplies on the small shelf in the shower before shedding her t-shirt and underwear and dropping them in the hamper. Turning on the water she set the temperature and let it run, stepping back to undo the tie holding her ponytail in place and placing it on top of her pile of clothes.

She stopped for a moment to regard herself in the mirror. It wasn't something she did out of vanity, although she was well aware of her own attractiveness and she did take a small amount of guilty pride in it. Speaking of which, maybe she really should go shopping tomorrow since she was apparently in the midst of another growth spurt. She glanced at the pile of silky, silvery material that was her pyjamas. They were getting snug around the hips and a little short in the legs. Cripes, she was already five and a half feet tall and still growing. How tall was she going to get?

The top was also getting a little too tight. Tight enough that she had popped a button when she rolled over in her sleep a couple of nights ago. The underwear was okay for the moment, it had been just a little loose when she bought it but that slack was disappearing too. Most of the money she made from tournament endorsements that she was allowed to keep and not bank was going towards clothes.

Turning back to the mirror, if anything this was kind of a semi-conscious evaluation, an existential 'who am I' exercise and being naked seemed to not only bare the flesh but bare her inner thoughts and insecurities and leave them open for her to scrutinize. The problem was that those insecurities were growing more and more as people distanced themselves from her. She rarely even had any boys making lewd remarks or trying to hit on her now, although she was actually glad for that. Their rather immature attention was uncomfortable to say the least and down right unpleasant at times. She'd even had the same problem with a couple of girls although she still wasn't sure if their comments were due to jealously or interest. If they were being catty they weren't very good at it.

She supposed that she had begun doing this as a way to bare her soul and try to discover if she was the cause of her increasing isolation and if so, why? It was like she had been thinking earlier on top of the wall. Was she the cause and if so, what had she done? Had her success and burgeoning fame been subtly changing her personality in a way that she hadn't been aware of and it had caused people to distance themselves from her?

Ichigo had assured her that it wasn't her fault, but...her thought process suddenly crashed like a derailed train. Her left arm covered her breasts and her right hand covered the patch of red curls between her legs. Ichigo...he was a guy...he could see _everything!_ She began to break out in a full body blush.

_"Seriously?"_ he drawled. _"I may remember my past life but I'm still your soul Pyrrha, and believe it or not you don't have anything I haven't seen before. I had two little sisters that I practically raised and a she-devil of a mentor who liked to appear in front of me naked. I've been with you and aware since you were born. I've seen everything from your first diaper change to __your...successful...experiment__ last night with the hand held shower, so freaking out and covering up is pointless." _Which seemed kind of rich for him to be saying considering his past behaviour, but if nothing else being the resident soul of a female for the last fifteen years had actually knocked most of the prude out of him.

She answered him with a loud shriek of horrified embarrassment.

* * *

_"I don't know what has you more bothered,"_ Ichigo began. _"Me and what happened last night, or your observations of how people are staring and whispering as they stay at a distance."_

Clad in jeans, sneakers, and a dark brown suede jacket, Pyrrha was walking down the street in the centre of Argus, through the section that housed most of the stores and markets. It was a pleasant day and there were a lot of people out taking advantage of it.

"How can I not be bothered by last night?" she shot back, trying to make sure that no one else heard her. "My soul is a guy and he sees me naked...and when I do..._that._"

_"Okay, you might want to think what you're saying rather than saying it out loud,"_ he cautioned. _"Anyone who see's you will think you're nuts because you'll look like you're talking to yourself."_

She took a quick, paranoid look around her. "I don't think I can do that. I can't think about what I'm saying and say it in my head. It's distracting and I'm likely to walk into a post or something. It's more..._real_ this way...or something."

He sighed. _"Yeah, I get it. Okay, well, that new scroll you got from one of your sponsors has a wireless earpiece doesn't it? Just stick that in your ear and keep your scroll in your hand, everyone will think you're on a call." _

She took his advice and pulled the new, state of the art scroll from an inside pocket in her coat. It was customized in her colours, red and bronze and with her personal spear and shield symbol on the back. Detaching the earpiece, she plugged it into her right ear and kept the scroll held in her left hand.

_"Okay, going back to your statement,"_ he said. _"I'm guessing here, and just because I am a soul doesn't mean that I know how all of this stuff works on an existential level or whatever. One of my mentors was the expert on that. I don't think the soul has a gender of its own, I think it's the sum of the experiences it has had through all of the lives it has led. Yeah, my last life was as a male and since I remember it I guess you could say that's what I still am. But,"_ he cut her off before she could jump in. _"I am also _your_ soul and that soul would also be made up of all of the lives it led before you whether it remembered its last life or not. Exactly who and what I was in that last life just might be why I can remember who I was. This wasn't exactly easy for me at first either when I realized I was reincarnated as a female. Bottom line though is this is how it is and there's nothing we can do about it. Once I finally realized that it was no longer an issue. There's no point in worrying about the things that you can't change."_

"So I get to be an existential anomaly?" she groused. "Great."

_"Could be worse,"_ he teased. _"I could be a pervert, which I'm not by the way."_

"That's not very reassuring," she said. "How do I know you aren't?"

_"You're the one that stands naked in front of the mirror and plays with the shower head. I'm not the one driving this bus, so essentially you'd be perving on yourself."_

"I don't do both at once!" she protested, mortifying herself at the same time.

_"I didn't say that, you did,"_ he answered, amusement obvious in his words. _"But you and I both know that you've thought about it."_

She groaned. Slamming her head repeatedly into a nearby lamp post was an appealing thought but it wouldn't solve anything. "You're not going to let me live this down are you?"

_"My mentors used to tease the hell out of me so I feel compelled to pass it on and now I can understand why they enjoyed it so much. It'll actually help you get used to this, believe it or not." _She groaned again. _"You felt a hell of a lot less stressed afterwards didn't you?"_

"Well, yeah," she admitted. Gods her face felt like it was going to catch fire, she was so embarrassed. "And it did feel really good," she whispered guiltily.

_"So don't worry about it then. You're already worrying about too many things now. Besides, once you learn about me you can feel free to tease me right back."_

"I'll hold you to that," she smirked.

She entered a small cafe that she used to frequent when she was out a little more often, got a cup of hot cocoa and a muffin and took a vacant table in a corner.

"What you said about me worrying about too many things...I didn't used to do that," she began. "It wasn't until I started getting sponsors and they wanted me to do photos and endorsements and I started getting coached by image consultants from the PR firm. They're crafting this image to sell to the public and anything I do affects that. I'm afraid to say the wrong thing or that I'll do something that goes against that image. They've already gotten mad a couple of times and I'm still not even sure what it was that I did wrong. I feel like I don't have any control over my life, that I have no say in it, that they're trying to make me into someone else. And with everyone distancing themselves for whatever their reasons are, I don't even have anyone I can talk to about it." She smiled sadly. "I guess you know all of that though."

_"I do,"_ he said gently. _"But that doesn't mean that it isn't still good for you to say it out loud and get it out in the open."_

"I just wish I knew what to do about it," she lamented.

_"Just be_ you _Pyrrha, and if you're not sure just exactly who 'you' is just yet, don't sweat it. You're fifteen, you've got time to figure it out. Just don't let the PR weasels and sponsors push you into anything you're not comfortable with or don't want to do because they will try to take advantage. It's your life, don't let them tell you how to live it."_

"Is that what you did?" she asked.

_"I'd like to think so,"_ he answered. _"And I thought I was, but for the longest time it turns out I was doing it while playing someone else's game. Still, I stayed true to who I was and what I believed even then."_

"I think I'll be glad when you tell me about your past life so that all of these references you keep making will make sense to me," she said.

_"I might be able to do one better than just telling you,"_ he said. _"I might actually be able to show it to you through my memories."_

Her eyes went wide. "You can do that?"

_"Not sure, but we can try it when the time comes," _he explained. _"If it doesn't work I'll just tell it."_

"Hmm, maybe I'll see something that I can tease you with," she smirked.

He laughed. _"You just might at that."_ He might just have to make sure she got some prime material to use on him too. It was only fair given the ammunition he had, and seeing her smile and hearing her laugh was far better than the sad look and silence of loneliness that was becoming too much a part of her life.

Towards that end he made sure that their conversations turned much lighter for the rest of the day and it also served to keep her mind off of the people around her as she went from shop to shop and got the items she wanted and needed. She was able to relax a little and get some enjoyment out of it which she badly needed.

* * *

The next few weeks were hectic with school, training, and increasing demands upon her time from the dreaded sponsors and public relations people. Fortunately when the semester break arrived she was allowed to have most of that time for herself, short of what she was going to spend on training. Over those weeks she had been getting more and more used to his presence, though it took a couple of weeks for her to finally get over her embarrassment enough to have her usual shower routine return to normal and by the time the break arrived she had pretty much stopped worrying about it entirely. It helped that he now waited until she was done and back in her room on the occasions where he decided to tease her a little.

A couple of days in they decided it was time to try getting her to see his memories. They chose bedtime because it would mean the least chance of anyone interrupting. She wasn't quite sure what to expect as she laid down and closed her eyes, but suddenly finding herself in an entirely different place was not it. She was still clad in her pyjamas but she was standing on the shore of a mountain lake and a familiar one at that. It was a place where she and her family had gone to for a few days on vacation a couple of years earlier.

Off to her right was a wooden dock with a wide base that had a table and several chairs scattered around it and up the well worn walkway to her left was a cottage with a wide wooden deck that stretched across the lakeside end. There were a number of sliding wood and paper panel doors that were all currently wide open, exposing the interior to the gentle warm breeze that ruffled the leaves on the large, old trees that surrounded the entire area. Warm sunlight streamed from the bright blue sky, a few small white clouds dotting its expanse, and she could hear the water gently lapping at the shore.

"Welcome to my little home within your soul," Ichigo said as he walked down the trail from the cottage.

She hadn't really formed much of a picture of what he would look like, but she still found herself surprised when she saw him. He was close to six feet tall with lightly tanned skin, warm brown eyes, and had long, shaggy, bright orange hair. He was dressed in a pair of tan cargo shorts and a medium blue t-shirt with dark blue sleeves and the number 15 on the chest. He had a pair of leather sandals on his feet. She felt her cheeks warm slightly. He wasn't bad looking either.

He chuckled. "Being self aware, I kind of needed a space to call home. Living like a formless entity with no visual boundaries would have driven me nuts and probably you along with me. I liked that mountain lake resort you and your family went to so I recreated it."

"Wow," she said, finally no longer speechless. "It feels just like I'm really there."

"It should," he said with a nod. "It's built right from the memories we have of the place so everything will look, feel, and smell just like it did then."

"This isn't what I was expecting when I went to sleep," she said.

"I thought I might as well see if I could bring you here," he said with a shrug. "It might make things easier."

"So why am I in my pyjamas?" she asked. "Is it because that's what I happened to be wearing when I came here?"

"That's usually the way it works when you visit your inner world," he answered. "That was usually the case for me...which I'll explain. Don't know if you can change it or not, I never tried but since this is your soul you should be able to appear dressed however you want to. Or, you could end up naked by default. Who knows? Won't know until you try."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll take your word for it. So how is this going to work?"

He gestured towards the table and chairs. "We'll go sit over there and I'll explain a bunch of stuff about what this world used to be, then we can try the memory thing. I'll warn you though, I don't know what to expect. It could be like walking through a movie or it could be a flood of my memories hitting you all at once, or it might not work at all. The decision is yours if you want to try it, you can give your answer after I explain some stuff."

She took note of his serious tone. She was pretty sure that she would go through with it, she really did want to know what his life had been like and by extension, who this person had been that was now her soul. She wanted to know how much of who he had been was reflective of who she was thus far in her life.

They went and sat at the table and he explained to her about the different worlds, the world of the living, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Hell. Even the sub dimensions of the Royal Realm and Shatten Bereich. He explained about the different beings and the nature of souls and the powers they may possess and be able to use. He explained about the Zanpakuto. He then gave a quick and dirty run down of the events that transpired from the time he first laid eyes on Rukia Kuchki to the last day of his life where he defeated Yhwach but lost the worlds, winning the battle but losing the war.

He wanted her to have at least some idea of what the events were and the emotions that went with them so that she wouldn't be completely taken by surprise when she saw it in his memories. He left nothing out and found that he had to stop a couple of times so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by it himself. Over the years when she was still unable to hear his voice he had spent a lot of time working his way through the things he had been through.

The worst part had been in trying to come to terms with the end. Not the loss of his own life, but the lives of everyone else. His family and all of his friends. He felt that he had failed them and it didn't matter that the odds hadn't been in his favour and the prospects of victory slim. He often saw their faces, sometimes in fond remembrance and longing, other times in crushing guilt and soul tearing sorrow. That also went for the lack of his constant companions, Zangetsu and the Old Man. When he died they had fully reintegrated with his soul and were no longer independent pieces of it. He missed sparring with them, with hearing the words of wisdom of the Old Man, cryptic or not, and he missed arguing with Zangetsu. At least there wasn't an empty feeling there like they were no longer part of him but he missed their presence all the same.

It took him a long time to realize that there hadn't been anything that he could have done. Hell, he had been extremely lucky to land the fatal blow that he did and there was nothing more that could have been done to change what came afterwards. With the Soul King dead and Yhwach prevented from taking his place there was nothing to stop the worlds from crashing together. The biggest surprise besides his reincarnation was that there was even a world to reincarnate to and he could feel the effects of the previous worlds on and in this one. Quite a feat considering how badly his sensing abilities had been.

The staggering amounts of spirit energy and spirit particles that made up the soul realms had come together to form this new world and left behind vast amounts of what became known as Dust. The properties of Zanpakuto and Kido manifested in the Semblance. The feel of a Hollow's energy resided in the Faunus, the animal traits and heightened senses and instincts being reminiscent of the animalistic forms most Hollows took on. The Grimm, appropriately enough, stank of Hell.

One of the things that sobered him from the guilt and self recriminations was the fact that he had something more important to worry about and that was Pyrrha. He had something and someone to protect again and he would do whatever he could to accomplish that. She wanted to be a Huntress and protect the world and he would do everything that he possibly could to help her do just that.

To that end, that was one of the reasons he was telling her about his past life and what it meant to this world. If she was going to have to share her soul with his consciousness and they were going to have to coexist, he felt that she deserved to know who and what he was. Also there was a chance that she could eventually tap into some of his deeply buried power...which was actually now her power since what had been his soul was now her soul...even after fifteen years he still got twisted up on that. Whether she could use it or not she deserved to know that it was there and why. As he had told her, he wouldn't keep any secrets from her.

She was quite stunned by the things he told her and she needed a few minutes to digest it before she agreed to forge ahead and learn more. He repeated his earlier warning before taking her hands in his and focusing on his memories. Of course, things had to go sideways. It started out alright and like he had hoped. It was like walking through a movie and he could narrate what was going on. She commented that she could actually feel his emotions. The great love he had for his mother and his little sisters. The care of his growing friendship with the black haired girl he sparred against in karate class.

He didn't know if that revelation caused him to lose focus and control, because it was something he hadn't been expecting, but the memories began to flow faster and faster until they were a blur. From the death of his mother to the end of the world, it all slammed into her like a tsunami. The whipsaw back and forth of his emotions had her paralyzed. He tried to stop it or at least slow it down but nothing he tried worked. Shit, he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

It ended when the past world did and they were ejected from the memory stream. He found himself holding her tightly as her eyes were locked into a thousand yard stare and her breathing was erratic, starting and stopping like she couldn't catch her breath. He didn't know what else to do so he just held on like he used to do when a storm would frighten his sisters. He apologized over and over. How could he be so freaking stupid? What the hell had made him think that he would be able to manipulate and control the flow of memories so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed by it? How could he be so stupid as to not consider that she might be able to feel what he had felt? They were the same being, the same soul! Damn it, he could have done permanent damage to her!

It took a long time for her breathing to stabilize and her eyes to lose the stare. Tears began to stream down her face. She grabbed two fists full of his shirt and buried her face against his chest, all of which did nothing to ease his guilt, only deepen it. Fortunately time could be made to pass differently within the inner world so that he could give her more time to recover. That at least seemed to be instinctive to him unlike his guesswork on the whole memory thing.

He guessed that it must have been close to two hours before she relaxed her grip and raised her head. "I'm sorry," he apologized as he looked into her watery green eyes. "I'm so sorry. I should have known better than to try that."

"Y-you warned me," she said shakily. "And I agreed to do it anyway. W-wasn't counting on feeling all of your emotions though. I, I think that was the hardest part."

"I'm sorry," he began again, only to have her place a shaky hand over his mouth to silence him.

"D-Don't. I may be a mess right now but I'm glad we did this." That was a shock to him. "I know who you are and what you stand for now and there are a lot of things we agree on and have in common. Yeah, it's going to take a while for me to sort through this and I'm drained, like when you've had a really tough day emotionally but about a hundred times worse. I'm fine. You didn't hurt me and I've got the rest of the semester break to relax and recover."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he questioned again. "Because you sure didn't look okay while it was happening."

She smirked tiredly and rapped her knuckles lightly on his head. "I'm fine...Strawberry." He looked at her incredulously. "See, I found a way I can tease you already."

"Geez, getting cheeky on me already." He couldn't help but grin.

"Maybe that's a good thing," she said.

"Maybe it is at that," he responded. She could use to be a bit more forward and to speak up and stand up for herself a little more. She could use a little more self confidence. Anything that would help was welcome, even if it came at his expense.

* * *

She got through the break just fine and seemed to cope pretty well with the memories of another life that had flooded her mind. It was perhaps a fortunate thing that it was only seventeen years worth of memories and emotions and not an entire lifetime. The emotions themselves were a little harder to deal with than the memories were and that did still have a lingering effect on her that showed periodically. She might get a little moody and being emotionally frazzled or drained took a physical toll, mostly in a deep feeling of fatigue. Unfortunately however the demands that were being made on her time began to get progressively worse and allowed her less time to rest or reflect and reset herself.

They were able to make use of the time effects of the inner world to give her a little more of an escape be it just relaxing on the dock and talking, swimming in the lake, or training in the 'Kisuke' room he had manifested under the cottage. Hat and Clogs would have cried about how unfair it was that he had to use Kido to make his and Ichigo had been able to simply will it to be. He wished he could see the look that would have been on his face.

Winning the Mistral Regional Tournament for the third time only made the demands on her worse. She was barely having enough time for proper training and was having a hard time keeping up with her schoolwork. Many days she was up for half the night or longer trying to complete assignments. It got to the point where he had to forcibly bring her into the inner world to give her extra time to sleep or to train with him to keep her skills sharp.

Emotionally she was barely keeping it together and he was afraid that the exposure to his emotions was the root cause of it. She hadn't been able to fully get through that before the pressure on her began to take its own toll. If she was frustrated enough he could goad her into cutting loose with everything she had to let out that frustration. He also tried to get her to be a little more aggressive in both fighting and in taking charge of her life.

That part was a little harder to do since being more aggressive with people wasn't quite in her make up. By upbringing and nature she was a nice, respectful girl with a bit of a shy side. While he certainly thought that she would make a good leader, she didn't aspire to it and had a tendency to follow. The way she was being overwhelmed by sponsors, her agent, and his PR people was making it worse and making it harder for her to try and reverse that. They were wearing her out, eroding her self confidence and the poor kid was running on fumes and didn't have enough of a fire burning to back them off.

He did what he could to lift her spirits and encourage her, but he couldn't force her to act differently. He could give her advice and make suggestions but she had to live her own life and find her own way. It hurt to see the deepening personal hell she was going through, how even more than ever people kept their distance from her. She was so lonely and so worn that she was a breakdown looking for a place to happen. By the time they were a couple of weeks before her fourth MRT he felt that he had no choice but to take action.

Arriving home from school, she was on the verge of collapsing in exhaustion when he pulled her in to the inner world and to everyone on the outside a collapse was what it looked like. She was furious with him and falling over the edge. He goaded her and she came at him like a force of nature, fists and feet flying. He let her and he allowed every blow land. Verbally, he kept pushing her buttons about how she was letting her handlers lead her around like a sheep to be sheared. How she was letting them control her life while she just sat there and watched, refusing to do anything but dance when they pulled her strings.

He hated doing it. He detested it, but he had to bring her to a point that would force her to cut those strings and break their hold on her, to stand up and take ownership of her life. If she wasn't willing to lead anyone else, she at least needed to lead herself instead of letting others dictate how she lived.

The girl could hit like a truck and that was even before she started to unconsciously tap into a small amount of the vast power of their soul. She screamed and cried and snarled as she hammered away at him. Even in her frenzied state her blows were crisp and precise, she wasn't flailing away without direction, her method instinctual. He was a mess but so was she. Her knuckles raw and bleeding and she had probably broken several bones in both her hands and feet and she was spattered with blood from both of them. Fortunately wounds taken here were easily erased and unlike in his past they wouldn't transfer to her physical body.

Eventually, even with the slight subconscious power boost she reached her limit. A missed punch sent her pitching forward and down to the surface of the dock in a graceless, sobbing heap. With a brief flare of power he dismissed the damage to both of them and sat before her, easing her up into a sitting position, helping her stay upright with a hand atop each shoulder.

"I-Ichigo..." she sobbed raggedly.

"It's okay Pyrrha," he assured her gently. "That wasn't even the worst beating I've ever taken and you needed to lose control like that, to let _everything _go. I'm sorry that I pulled you in here without warning but it was better to break down in here than out there. Everyone will think you collapsed from exhaustion...which you were pretty damn close to doing anyway."

"I'm so stupid," she cried. "I let them control my entire life and run me ragged. I don't even remember half of what I've done in the last year."

He flicked her in the forehead, getting a confused pout in return as she rubbed the spot. It would have been adorable if not for the tears and swollen, red eyes.

"You are _not _stupid," he said firmly. "You are a talented, intelligent, and trusting teenager who was taken advantage of by a bunch of pricks that smelled an opportunity to make money. You were raised to be respectful and you trusted them to have your best interests at heart, which they should have. Instead they used their age and experience to use and screw over a kid so they could make some more Lien to line their pockets with."

"But I let them," she protested. "I didn't stand up to them."

"They didn't even give you a chance to," he countered. "You tried to but when they saw it they made sure to keep you so busy and run you ragged enough that they'd wear down any resistance you tried to put up. You even said it yourself, you can't even remember half of what you've done in the last year. Your collapse will bring them to a screeching halt and make them very nervous. They know they're at fault."

"I don't want to be their puppet anymore," she sniffled. Her voice was ragged. "I _never_ wanted to be. I never wanted fame or to have my face on some stupid cereal box. I just want to be a Huntress, the best Huntress that I can be. That's all I've _ever_ wanted."

He leaned his forehead against hers. "And you will be. You will be the greatest Huntress that Remnant has ever known."

"Will you help me get there Ichigo?"

"Of course," he assured her. "I'll be there to help you every step of the way. I'll do whatever I can and I'll be whatever you want me to be or whatever you need me to be. You won't be alone."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

He returned the gesture until several minutes passed and she sagged and wilted against him. He picked her up in a bridal carry and started walking to the cottage.

"W-what are you doing?" she squeaked.

"Putting you to bed," he answered. "You're exhausted and you need the rest."

"But..."

"Your body is unconscious and your soul form is about to crash too," he warned. "Get some sleep. We can talk more during the week while you take it easy and recover, okay?"

"Okay."

* * *

And talk they did. When she wasn't sleeping, which for the first couple of days was most of the time. They talked about how her agent and others were controlling everything she did and hardly giving her a chance to breathe. They talked about the things that she truly wanted out of her life, and just as importantly they talked about how she was going to go about taking back control and orchestrating her own future.

One of the first things she did was check her contract with her agent and check on her finances. The agent got ten percent of the earnings for his fees, which was within the normal range for such things. Five percent was being put into an account that she had free access to while the rest was put in a trust fund that she wouldn't be able to access until she finished her education at a Huntress academy. Thankfully it turned out that everything was in order there, she didn't think she could have taken it if they had been cheating her out of everything she had worked so hard to earn. The surprise was just how much Lien was in that trust. Monetarily at least all of the appearances and product sponsorships and exhibitions were worth it and if she took care of it she would have a secure financial future.

She had a bit of leverage she could use if she wanted to. The amount of hours she had been putting in through the schedule her agent put together actually had her over the limits of what she was legally able to work since she was still a minor. It wasn't over by a lot but it was still over. She was thinking that her agent was trying to get the most out of his ten percent cut and figured that no one was going to notice a few hours over the limit. Apparently he also was counting on her being ignorant of that law and the terms of the contract he had with her. He was in violation of the contract and she could terminate it if she chose to do so.

That made her angry. He worked her to the point of exhaustion all to make a little more money, figuring she was too stupid to notice. No, that wasn't right. More like he was counting on her being too naive and accommodating to say anything about it if she did figure it out. She planned on taking care of that situation after the tournament.

After a week of rest she began training again both physically and inside her soul. After her physical training Ichigo refused to tire her out more by going hard. Instead they did a lot of light sparring and low speed manoeuvring involving technique and precision for both offence and defence. For the last day of their practice they sped things up so she could get a better feel for how the things they practised would be like at real fight speed. They also talked and walked through tactics and different methods of attack and defence.

Currently, they were sitting at the table on the dock, quietly relaxing after their training and intending at some point to go for a swim. He was clad in a simple pair of dark blue swim shorts while she wore a pretty conservative red and green two piece swimsuit. He had come to learn that what she chose to wear when she was in the inner world tended to reflect the confidence or the edge on her moods. With the example of the swimsuit, a lot of the time it was a conservative red and white one piece, reflecting that she was in the slightly withdrawn and more passive mood she seemed to be in most of the time.

Lately however she had been showing a lot more confidence, resolve, and even anger which he had been glad to see that she used as positive fuel. Thus the two piece which while showing more skin overall, still didn't reveal a lot. It was a short tank style top and form hugging shorts. Despite her killer looks and very toned athletic physique, she wasn't one for showing herself off publicly.

Today she was definitely in a very positive, confident and focused mood, something she wanted to turn into the norm for herself. She wanted to be more open, forward and maybe even daring. It was going to be a bit of a struggle for her because that wasn't who she had been up until now. But, she was determined to no longer be the person who followed along meekly and who didn't question things enough. She needed to start taking charge of her life and finding her own way of doing things.

The biggest and hardest part for her would be in taking that first step and that was something that only she could do. He could offer her advice and tell her what he thought. He could give her the benefit of his own experiences but he couldn't make the decisions and take action for her. What she did and how she chose to do it, the specific direction she chose to take, those were all things that she would have to figure out for herself.

He wondered which direction she'd take. Would she remain passive and calmly cut ties with those who had taken control of her life, or would she shock them, open their eyes with glaring detail and make a hard, clean break? He really didn't know. He'd shuttered himself off from her thoughts on it to ensure that he wouldn't have any undue influence on her ultimate decision. He'd already said all he needed to say about it and he had kept his preference of how he hoped she would go about it to himself.

She stood and began moving to the end of the dock. "I'm going to take a dip before I go back. You coming?"

"Be there in sec," he said as he watched her go. He marvelled at how odd it seemed for him to reincarnate to a female, but he also marvelled at how right it felt to be a part of her life. He wasn't sure why that was, or what it was about her exactly that drew that feeling out of him. It was getting hard to remember at times that they were the same being and not two separate entities. Hell, maybe he'd had it wrong all this time and they really were two separate entities. He'd had enough strangeness in his life that he knew better than to discount the possibility and down the road it might be something worth taking a closer look at.

He watched her walk to the end of the dock with a certain amount of amused awe. The girl was only seventeen and already practically a walking wet dream and he had known more than a few people who would have turned into drooling idiots at the sight of her...Keigo and Renji not the least of them. Tall, broad shouldered and strong, and she moved with an undeniable and alluring athletic grace. In her armour she looked like something that could have come out of both a history book and a fantasy manga back in his previous life. But she was also kind, friendly, respectful, and he found that there were a number of things that reminded him of some of the women and girls he'd previously known in his short life.

It made his heart ache sometimes and when he'd get philosophical about it he'd wonder if somehow the attributes of a number of them had somehow found their way into this new world and had manifested within her. It was selfish and potentially dangerous thinking on his part. She was Pyrrha and no one else and she didn't need or deserve to have him projecting onto her the attributes and memories of people he had lost and who he missed.

She came to a stop at the end of the dock. Her head tilted up and she took a slow, deep breath and let it out. He could feel the slight ripple of power as she initiated a change in clothing...and then there she stood wearing nothing at all. With a quarter turn she looked over her shoulder at him, a half smile, half smirk adorning her furiously blushing face. She held his gaze for a moment before turning and diving into the water.

He laughed as he got up and walked to the end of the dock. He knew what way she was going to go now. "Those ass hats are going to get a wake up call they didn't count on. Good for you Pyrrha."

Following her example he ditched the shorts and dove in after her.

* * *

"I never agreed to go to Haven Academy," Pyrrha said to her agent. "That was your preference but it's not your decision to make, it's mine."

They were at the after tournament formal banquet, surrounded by a group that was made up of the majority of the sponsors she had done promotions for. Despite being the favourite, there were many who had thought she would not actually do what no one else had and win the Mistral Regional Tournament for the fourth consecutive time. Not only had she won, she did so with ease, displaying an edge and aggressiveness that none of the viewers had ever seen from her before.

Her agent of course was beside himself with glee at the prospect of more publicity and promo work that would surely flow their way and had been happily schmoozing the sponsors and gushing about what a boon her attendance would be for Haven Academy.

"Pardon me?" he asked, not sure that he had heard correctly.

"You heard me," she returned with a bit of an edge. "You have already exercised too much control over my life and you are not going to decide where I go to train to be a Huntress. As it is, under your 'guidance' I have lost the last four years of my life to an endless string of appearances, promotions, and skills displays."

"You and your family agreed to this long ago and we have paid you a great deal of Lien for your time," a corpulent, red faced man in an ill fitting tuxedo admonished. "You would do well to not be such an ingrate."

She pinned the man with an intense look that startled him. "Ingrate?!" she growled. "I did everything that was ever asked of me for four years and never said a word, not even when the number of hours the lot of you were demanding caused me to collapse from exhaustion two weeks ago, or did you conveniently forget about that? A number of hours I might add that violate the laws on child workers...or did you also forget that I am still a minor? I was kept so busy that I barely had time to train and I had to stay up half the night, every night, to keep up with my schoolwork."

Several faces went pale. She tuned back to her agent. "Both of which are clear breaches of our contract and you know it so consider yourself fired." She turned back to the sponsors. "You all kept pushing for more with no regard to the golden goose you were slowly killing so as far as I am concerned you are all just as guilty. I never wanted fame or fortune. I never wanted to be made into an icon left all alone on a pedestal that no one will approach. When this all began it was just supposed to be an interview here and there, a couple of appearances and maybe a product endorsement or two._ That's_ what we were told when this began. You must all be so proud that you were able to take advantage of a naive young girl and fill your pockets with Lien on her success. Well this is where that ends. I will no longer be your puppet to manipulate."

They were shocked into silence. Not once had any of them every heard a cross word or a sound of complaint come from Mistral's Champion. She had always done everything they required and did it well without complaint.

She turned to walk away, but turned back to her now former agent, staring him down. "As for which Huntress Academy that I _will_ be attending...I'll be going to the best school Remnant has to offer. I'll be going to Beacon."

With that, she turned a walked out.

* * *

Later, she appeared in her inner world on the path that led to the cottage, still clad in the long red dress she wore to the party. Looking up she saw a smirking, suit wearing Ichigo standing on the deck in front of the door. She smiled and walked up the path.

"Thank you," she said as she reached the top of the steps. "I couldn't have told them off without you. It felt like you were standing just off my right shoulder the whole time."

"That's the effect I was hoping for," he said. "I told you I'd have your back. You're not alone."

"Which you like to remind me of every so often and at the most personal and embarrassing times," she smirked. "Pervert-berry likes to watch I guess."

He shrugged, the look on his face unrepentant. "Got you to stop being all self conscious about it didn't I?" She rolled her eyes. "Seriously though, I'm proud of you, both for the tournament and for telling those idiots off. The looks on their faces was priceless. Last thing they ever expected was for you to put them in their place."

"It was rather nerve wracking," she said. "Actually I would have preferred to fight the tournament all over again rather than confront them but it had to be done."

"Yes it did," he assured her. "And I'm pretty sure you would win the tournament again considering how you blew through your opponents. You did good, now your life is yours again to do with as you wish."

She heard music begin to play inside the cottage and he held out his hand to her. "Care to dance, Miss Nikos?"

She giggled. "Yes, I most certainly would."

Ever since he had made his presence known to her they had done this. Because of her fame she didn't get asked to any of her school dances. No one, or at least no one she actually_ wanted_ to dance with would do so at the tournament banquets. So, he would make it up to her by dancing with her here, as much as she wanted and for as long as she wanted. He admitted to not being very good at it but he was improving and it was the thought that counted. It always turned out to be an enjoyable evening.

They danced for well over an hour before the fatigue of the day began to catch up to her and they found themselves out on the deck before she left, gazing at the full moon that dominated the star filled night sky. Unlike in the outside world, the moon here was fully intact.

"It always seems strange to see it here unbroken," she mused. "Good, but strange."

"The moon's always been a thing for me," he said. "I used to spend a lot of time looking at it. Needless to say when I reawakened it was a hell of a shock to see it broken like that."

"Zangetsu. Slaying Moon," she said, uttering the name of his Zanpakuto. "You miss them don't you?"

"Yes and no," he said after a pause. "I miss the feel of them and I miss talking to them, but even though I can't do that anymore I know that they are still a part of me. I am still them and they are still me. We're still one and the same."

"It would have been interesting to meet them I think," she said.

He shuddered to think what the Hollow would say after laying eyes on her. Of course, what did that say about him since the Hollow was part of him and represented his instincts. "Interesting would be putting it politely. The Old Man would be alright but the Hollow had no filter. He'd be likely to say anything and none of it meant for polite company. I'd have to kick his ass."

"So you'd defend my honour from your own base instincts?" she said with an amused smirk. "I'm flattered."

He face palmed. "Sometimes I forget that you saw _everything_ when I showed you my memories."

"Consider it payback," she sassed. "And _everything_ also means what I saw _you_ doing in the shower Mister. You've got some gall teasing _me_ about it."

"Oh yeah?" he said with a dangerous grin on his face. "And how many times have you replayed _that _memory?"

"...I don't have to answer that!" she squeaked.

"You're right, you don't because I already know."

She groaned and hung her head in embarrassed defeat. She sighed before looking up again. "You know, despite the subject matter, it kind of feels good to be able to kid around and go back and forth like that with someone. I can just be me...or at least I think it's me." She rubbed the back of her head self consciously, a familiar gesture to him. "I don't know. Considering the last four years, I'm not really sure if I know who the real me is."

"I get it," he said. "It's like you told them at the banquet, they took four years of your life. Four years where you would have otherwise begun to figure yourself out. Now you're free to do that too, hell you can do whatever you want now. Speaking of which, what _are_ you going to do now? You've got two months before you go to Beacon."

"Well, I need to keep training and I wanted to get ahead on the curriculum so I asked for some early study materials," she answered.

He gave her a horrified look and pointed at her accusingly. "My god, you're a nerd!"

"I am not a nerd!" she protested, thought about it, then groaned. "My god, I really am a nerd."

"All work and no play makes Pyrrha a dull girl," he chided.

"Working is all I know how to do," she said quietly. "It's all I've ever really done since I started training to be a Huntress."

"You'll have to learn how to take some time for yourself and relax otherwise you'll burn yourself out," he said. "Consider it part of figuring out who you are. Your time is your own now so you get to set the agenda. Standing up for yourself and breaking away from the fame machine was a big and good first step. Hang onto what that felt like and forge your own way." He gave her a gentle smile. "Being a little more aggressive and confident looks good on you."

She blushed slightly at the compliment. "I didn't feel very confident at the time but it did feel good to defy them and look out for myself for once."

"There you go, you're starting to find your way already. Every journey starts with a first step," he said sagely.

"Honestly, I didn't think I could have gotten this far without your help Ichigo," she said. "I've always been a bit shy and I never want to cause problems for anyone so I was never able to push back even after I began to realize how miserable I was becoming. I was going backwards, or at best just standing still but you made me look and move forward again. I really don't know how to thank you for that."

"You don't need to," he said gently. "Just seeing you smile and be happy is more than enough."

"Still..." Red faced, she leaned in and gave him a little peck on the cheek.

He certainly hadn't been expecting that.

"Wait, since I kissed you and you're my soul, does that mean that I just kissed myself?"

He smirked. "Maybe. But have you looked at yourself...why wouldn't you kiss you?"

* * *

Later, as she regarded herself in the mirror before her shower, she was beginning to feel like the pieces of the existential puzzle about herself that she had been trying to put together were finally beginning to line up. She was a work in progress but that was okay. Wasn't everyone after all? At least now those pieces were in her hands and weren't being manipulated by someone else.

Thinking back to what Ichigo had said, she took a much different look at herself in the mirror than what she usually did, this time from a purely aesthetic viewpoint. She twisted and turned and bent, viewing herself from different angles. Vanity wasn't a thing for her, she thought it was one of the worse traits that a person could have, but..._damn_.

She giggled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Heh, maybe he's right."

* * *

**AN:** As you can guess, Pyrrha is going to be a little bit different in this story. How can she not be with this major change in her life? Ichigo represents a major influence change in her life. She now actually has someone to stand with her where everyone else has left her atop the pedestal they placed her on. Others did that, yet she suffered for it in isolation and loneliness.

Now, she will never be lonely again and her self confidence can only improve for it.

Hope you have enjoyed this first chapter. Please be so kind as to leave a review if you would.

Trolls and jackasses need not bother.


	2. On To Beacon

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 2: On To Beacon**_

The last leg of the airship journey to Beacon Academy was largely uneventful if not occasionally boisterous, not a big surprise considering the number of teenagers populating the large central cabin of said airship. Most of them were gathered together with friends or new acquaintances they had made along their own journeys. As for Pyrrha she had found a semi quiet corner to sit in, an earbud in each ear and her scroll open in her lap.

Over the two month break she had seen the dissolution of her contract with her agent finalized and thankfully without a lot of fuss...or publicity thankfully. She had pored over the advance course work Beacon had sent her and had the majority of the reading and assignments done that would carry her through the first semester. She had also trained extensively both in the outside world and in her inner world with Ichigo. She hadn't beaten him yet but that wasn't as frustrating as she thought it would be. If anything, she was relishing the challenge and it served to remind her that despite the titles everyone wanted to heap upon her, she _wasn't _untouchable or invincible.

In addition to their usual training they had also begun to work on new and varied ways that she could utilize her Semblance as well as seeing if she could start tapping into Ichigo's deep reservoir of power. There had been some small success there but it wasn't yet anything that she could make immediate use of. She was only just learning how to find it and consciously draw upon even the smallest amount of it. The plus side was that she had been able to increase her own Aura with all of their training and her Semblance was getting stronger. Thinking of different ways of using it and practising some of them had been quite interesting.

Thus far she had done little more than use it to effect metal an opponent might be wearing or wielding and gently deflecting it away from her to avoid blows, which had served to make it look like her opponents couldn't land any direct blows on her. She also used it to help manipulate her own weapon and shield. Her idea had been to keep her Semblance as a mystery to others and by only making subtle use of it no one had yet figured it out. Against the Grimm, if she had objects she could affect and use against them, it wouldn't matter, but she still wanted to keep it as much of an unknown as she could against a Human or Faunus opponent.

She had also been practising fighting without using her Semblance at all, using just her shield and weapon to block and parry when not just outright dodging a blow. Ichigo had told her how many of the most powerful Shinigami had viewed using their true strength and full power. Many of them believed that it should only be used when truly needed, that using it when it wasn't necessary was a sign of weakness.

They also saw it as laziness and a lack of faith in one's physical skills, or a sign that one's physical skills were lacking to the degree that they felt they had to use the power at their disposal. In his case, he needed to use his power openly and often because he both lacked proper training to have sufficient skill not to need it, and because he was often outclassed by his opponents and needed to use it just to survive.

In her case, while she tried to use the power of her Semblance in a subtle fashion, she was still relying on it too much by that standard. She certainly had the skill to not need to use it, but she began to rely on its subtle use to avoid blows she could have blocked, avoided, or that would have done little damage to her Aura if they had landed. So, she sought to improve her purely physical fighting skills without the aid of her Semblance. In a serious life or death situation she wouldn't hesitate to use it as needed, but knowing that she could handle an opponent without relying on it so much was a good thing and would address one of her few weak points in combat.

She had also actually taken some time to just relax and rest as well. All of her training and preparation wouldn't be much good after all if she was too exhausted to utilize it. She watched a number of movies and went on a few small shopping trips. When they weren't training she and Ichigo would swim in the inner world or just sit at the dock and talk about whatever came to mind and had a few laughs along the way. By the time her departure date for Beacon arrived she was rested and ready to go.

_"Thinking of changing your look?"_ Ichigo asked.

On her scroll she was using an application from a net site that sold clothing and equipment to Huntsmen and Huntresses, both established and in training. They also did custom work and had an application where you uploaded a three hundred and sixty degree video of yourself that would be turned into a 3D model and you could use it to see what you would look like in different clothing and hunt accessories. The company did a pretty good business and was well regarded for their custom work. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses wanted to have a distinct and unique look and this was one of the better tools and outlets with which to make that happen.

"Maybe," she answered. "If I do it probably won't be until after I graduate though." On her scroll she had a model of herself wearing her usual battle attire except she had replaced the skirt with a pair of black leather pants that laced up the side of the legs. Her red sash was still wrapped around her waist but she had removed the leg armour from the knees up. She had also shortened her armoured corset, taking a few inches off of the bottom.

"Hmmm..." she changed the colour of the pants from black to brown to red and back to black, then saved a copy of all three options to a file so she could look at it later.

_"Every consider something different for boots?" _he asked. _"It's still kind of mind bending how you're able to fight so well in heels."_

He knew how it had started of course. When she first began combat training beyond the basic level she kept falling into a flat footed stance. In order to force her to be up on the balls of her feet and more ready to move, her coaches made her start practising in heels. She took to it so well that she never gave them up.

She laughed. "I've been wearing them for so long that I can't imagine wearing anything else. Flat soles _would_ be more practical but I think it would take me quite a while to get used to fighting in them. I've actually seen quite a few active Huntresses that wear heels. It's kind of a thing apparently, same as combat skirts."

She could sense his shrug. _"Whatever works I guess. You're not having any trouble with heels or a skirt."_

"I did kind of question it at first," she said. "It certainly was a challenge learning to move and fight in heels and it took a while to find a skirt that wasn't going to ride up but it all works. Since we're speaking of practical..." She started fiddling with hair styles. "Long hair isn't. It gives your opponent something to grab but I really like my long hair." She grimaced as she went through different short haired looks. "And I really don't like the way I look with short hair."

_'I wouldn't sweat it too much,"_ he said. _'My mentor Yoruichi had long hair, though not as long as yours, but it was never an issue for her. Of course, I think she would have rained six kinds of hell down on anyone that tried to use it against her. I knew several others that had long hair too and they never saw it as an issue. __They were all pretty bad ass fighters too."_

"Maybe I could braid it," she mused. She made that adjustment to the 3D model. "Not bad, but I think it would be a real pain to redo it every morning."

_"You could always try twin tails," _he suggested cheekily.

She tried it and they both ended up laughing at the result. "I think I'll just leave it as is."

A bit of a commotion off to her left caught her attention. A rather busty blonde girl was bear hugging a smaller girl in a red hooded cloak draped over a black and red corseted dress. She couldn't hear everything they were saying but did catch the blonde's excited words about being happy that her little sister was going to Beacon with her.

"She looks a little young to be going to Beacon," she observed.

_"Early entry maybe?"_ he suggested. They had both read about the history of all the academies and it had been known to happen.

"If she is she must be very talented," she said. "Maybe she's just small and looks really young?"

_"We'll find out eventually,"_ he said._ "Either way, if she's here she must have earned it."_

She looked around the spacious cabin, regarding the other students hoping to get into the prestigious school. Off in one corner was a group of boys who seemed to be enjoying needling anyone who got within earshot of them.

"Great, there's a Winchester here," she groused, noticing the crest on his chest armour. "That's bound to be a headache. The whole family is known for being bullies and racists. Hardly Huntsman material."

_"Hopefully he won't pass initiation,"_ he said.

"If we're lucky," she returned. She looked off to the right. "Now there's an odd couple."

A rather energetic orange haired girl in a pink skirt was excitedly hopping around and babbling away to a calm boy dressed in green and white, with dark hair bearing a streak of magenta down the left side. He seemed to take the girl's actions in stride, nodding and commenting when she gave him a second to do so. He seemed completely unperturbed by her exuberance and even had a small, fond smile on his face.

_"He's either really patient or he's known her long enough that he's used to it," _Ichigo quipped.

"I'm thinking the second," she said. A little way down from them a dark haired girl in a black and white outfit, and with a rather large bow situated on top of her head, sat with her nose buried in a book.

"Did her bow just twitch?" she asked.

_"I think it did,"_ Ichigo said. They watched closely and a few moments later when a particularly loud squeal erupted from the pink skirted ginger, the bow noticeably moved.

"Faunus?" she guessed.

_'Unless we're seeing things then I'd say there's something, another set of ears maybe, hiding under that bow."_

"It's too bad that she feels the need to keep them hidden," she lamented.

_"Unfortunately it seems unreasonable hate didn't die with the old world,"_ he groused. _"So they've got some animal traits...big deal, they're still people."_

"If only everyone had the same view about it that we do," she said. "We have enough problems to deal with in the Grimm without having Humans and Faunus at each other's throats." She looked back to where Winchester and his gang were still acting like fools. "And having Huntsmen like that is not going to help the situation."

_"Well, maybe over the next four years we'll just have to kick their assess a time or two,"_ he said in a tone that meant he _really_ hoped they would.

"I agree," she said with a smirk. "You know, you are such a bad influence on me, corrupting my youthful innocence."

_"Innocence. Right. Must be the corrupting influence of my Hollow side that does that to you. I suppose it's to blame for you shedding your bathing suit to go skinny dipping every time we go for a swim too,"_ he teased.

"...Exactly," she countered, red faced. "Skinny dipping, contemplating breaking Winchester's legs...eating too much chocolate...that's all due to your influence."

_"Hey, you we're already a chocoholic before we began to communicate,"_ he defended.

"But you were still there so I choose to blame you," she concluded sweetly.

_"Convenient."_

Any further banter was cut off by the sight of a blonde haired boy stumbling around the cabin with his hand over his mouth and looking very much like he was about to hurl half of his internal organs. She subconsciously shrank back in her corner and fortunately he staggered the other way. Unfortunately for them, he was headed in the direction of the busty blonde and her little sister.

* * *

She shut out the sound of the same boy noisily heaving into a trash can as she walked away from the now docked airship with the rest of the students. As with many of the others she was taken with the sight before her. The buildings and what could be seen of the grounds around it were beautiful. She looked on in amusement as the red hooded girl was all but drooling over the various weapons she saw being carried by the others...and in turn being reigned in by her sister. Who promptly abandoned her to go and join another group of people.

It didn't get better for the girl as she was left stumbling in her sister's wake and promptly tumbled into a luggage cart that had been blindly wheeled behind her. Even worse was when the one pushing the cart, who turned out to be none other than the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, began berating the poor girl.

"Now that's uncalled for," she said. "It wasn't even her fault."

_"That's not going to end well,"_ Ichigo said, as the Schnee began waving around a bottle of Dust that had fallen out of her luggage. A bottle that was leaking and spewing the powdered substance in the caped girl's face...until she sneezed and it exploded. She began making her way towards them but was beaten there by the bookworm from the airship...who only seemed to stay long enough to piss off the Schnee then leave, not even offering to help the girl in the cape who was by now looking thoroughly downtrodden.

"Unbelievable," she groused, thoroughly unimpressed.

There was a time not too long ago where she wouldn't have said a word about what transpired and let it play out on it's own, much to her self disappointment. Fame had brought enough unwanted attention without adding to it by getting in the middle of someone else's trouble. Now she couldn't make up her mind who she wanted to give a piece of her mind to the most, the arrogant socialite or the indifferent possible Faunus who intervened just long enough to inflame things. She started toward the red caped girl again to see if she was okay, only to be beaten to the punch by the blonde boy who had been throwing up earlier. She drifted to a stop again.

_"Just because he got there first doesn't mean you can't still check on her,"_ Ichigo said. _"You might even make a friend. Maybe two."_

"For how long?" she asked quietly.

The last four years, the fame and everything that came into her life with it pushed away anyone who she could have called a friend. Maybe they weren't such good friends anyway if her attaining fame she hadn't even asked for was enough to make them abandon her, thinking she was suddenly something beyond their reach. She had tried numerous times to make new friends but nothing ever lasted. They either took on the same viewpoint as others or her schedule made it impossible to have any time to forge a meaningful connection. After a while she had just simply stopped trying.

_"Don't go sliding backwards on me now,"_ Ichigo said softly. _"This is a new place and a new start."_

"And it could be the same old result."

_"Or not. Won't know until you try."_

"If this doesn't work out I'm coming in there and kicking your butt," she threatened mildly.

He laughed. _"You can try Big Red, you can try."_

The two had wandered off along one of the pathways that cut through the gardens around the school. By the time she caught up to them they were engaging in an impromptu show and tell of weapons.

_"Holy crap!"_ Ichigo exclaimed upon seeing the large scythe the girl had just unfurled. _"That thing's bigger than she is!"_

"Says the guy with a sword as long as he is tall," she countered. "If she's here then she must be able to wield it."

The same couldn't be said for the boy however as he nearly dropped the sword and fumbled horribly with his sheath/collapsible shield.

_"That's just sad."_

"He looks very uncomfortable handling those," she said. "It's almost like he's scared of it."

_"Maybe we should be wondering about his skills instead of hers,"_ he muttered. _"Go ahead and say hello already."_

"I don't even know what to say," she fretted.

_"We already saw that she seems to be a weapon's nut...go with that."_

She took a deep breath before continuing on towards them. "That's a very impressive weapon," she said, catching their attention. "Scythe wielders are quite rare."

"The only other one I know of is my Uncle," the girl said brightly. "He taught me how to use Crescent Rose."

"I look forward to seeing how well you wield it then." She offered her hand and fought to keep her nervousness in check. "I should introduce myself. I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

"Ruby Rose," the girl said cheerfully, accepting the offered hand.

"Jaune Arc," the boy said in turn, shaking her hand as well.

"Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it," Ruby giggled.

"Hey now!" be blurted, face turning red.

"Do they?" Pyrrha asked, trying not to laugh.

"Pyrrha Nikos," Ruby muttered, instantly making the tall redhead feel a sense of dread. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"I...have won some tournaments, you might have heard it in the news somewhere," she offered up weakly.

"Cool," Ruby said with a smile. "You must be a really good fighter then. So what's your weapon?" she asked eagerly.

Pyrrha was almost stunned into silence and at that moment she could have hugged the daylights out of the adorable girl. Recovering quickly she pulled her weapon and shield off of her back and into view. "This is Akouo," she said, taking the shield in her left hand. "And this is Milo." She transitioned it from its Ziphos form, to its Javelin form, and to its rifle form.

The were veritable stars in the girl's beautiful silver eyes. "Wow! Three forms? That's awesome!"

"Did you build it yourself too like Ruby did hers?" Jaune asked.

Somehow it seemed like he was almost dreading the answer. Strange. "You built your scythe?" she asked.

"I...designed it too," Ruby said shyly. "I may have overdone it."

"Well I didn't design mine and I didn't build it myself as such," Pyrrha admitted. "I helped with the forging of the parts and the builder supervised while I assembled Milo. What about yours Jaune?" she asked, trying to keep him in the conversation.

With seeming reluctance he drew the sword again and held it up for inspection. "Crocea Mors. It belonged to my Great-Great Grandfather. He used it during the Great War."

"Excellent craftsmanship," she commented. She wasn't an expert but she did know a great deal about weapons. "That had to be forged by a master blade smith. It should serve you well."

"T-thanks," he stuttered as he sheathed it.

_"Question is, is he worthy of it?"_ Ichigo commented. _"Something's not quite right here."_

_"Later,"_ she thought in response.

"Sooo, does anyone have any idea where we're supposed to be?" Ruby asked sheepishly.

"I was following you," Jaune responded, not too helpfully.

"Back this way," Pyrrha said, gesturing back to the way they had come. "They're having everyone meet in the front foyer to be welcomed by the Headmaster. I'll show you the way."

She was a mix of emotions as they went. Glad that she had actually made two new friends...and they didn't even seem to know who she was! But she was also nervous that they would drift away when they found out.

_"Don't worry so much," _Ichigo said. _"They don't seem like the type that would do that."_

_"There were others that I thought that about too yet they still did." _And it had hurt every single time.

_"Hey, you're talking to someone who used to make friends out of his enemies so I can't be that bad a judge of character," _he reminded her, trying to lighten the mood. _"Give them a chance, I think you'll be glad you did."_

_"Okay. I'm trusting you here Ichigo," _she relented.

_"I know you've been hurt that way before Pyrrha," _he began gently._ "And if I thought they that would do that then I never would have pushed you to go talk to them. I would never throw you to the wolves like that."_

She sighed. _"I know you wouldn't. I'm sorry."_

_"No need to apologize. You've been bitten a few times so I understand why you're reluctant. It'll be fine."_

* * *

"He's wearing a onesie," she deadpanned in disbelief.

After the welcome by Professor Ozpin, the students were assigned lockers to store their gear in and then were free to explore the campus. After dinner they all gathered in the ballroom and staked out their space to sleep for the night. She had claimed a spot along the wall not far from the entrance and, surprise, despite the number of people in the room no one was camped out very close to her.

She had been able to ignore the constant stares she had been receiving all day, though thankfully none that had recognized who she was had bothered her for an autograph. She had totally missed however, much to Ichigo's amusement which he didn't pass on, how several students had gone wide eyed and silent for a different reason as she walked from the locker room to her sleeping bag in her night wear...a pair of grey shorts and a matching, slightly short, loose tank top. The girl simply didn't realize the effect her looks had on other people. At least it gave him plenty of ammo to tease her with later.

Some people were sitting around talking, some reading, and some were playing games on their scrolls. Predictably there was a group of guys across the room flexing and posing like a bunch of peacocks looking for mates. More than anything they just looked ridiculous and it probably wasn't doing their egos any good that a girl like Pyrrha wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to their display.

She was just sitting down on her sleeping bag, leaning against the wall, and putting in her ear buds when Jaune wandered in and struck a pose himself in front of group. Thus Pyrrha's reaction of...

"He's wearing a onesie," she deadpanned in disbelief.

_"Yes. Yes he is," _Ichigo said, echoing her disbelief.

"With Pumpkin Pete on the chest."

_"Yep. Maybe you can autograph it for him."_

"And it has little bunny ears on the feet."

_"Uh huh."_

"And he's standing right here, in a room full of aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses, and he seems totally oblivious to how badly he stands out."

_"Nope. He doesn't have a freaking clue."_

"He...he actually looks proud of it."

_"I wish we could unsee this, I really do."_

"You said it would be fine making friends with him."

_"And it probably still is, but I didn't say anything about weird."_

"Well at least Ruby isn't wearing anything strange," she said with a sigh, noting the girl's rose print pants and comic Beowolf tank top.

She watched the girl interacting with her sister, who then dragged her over to the girl with the bow, who didn't seem too pleased with the interruption to her reading. This was followed by a sisterly brawl and the loud intervention of one Weiss Schnee. Before she really realized what she was doing Pyrrha was on her feet and crossing the room.

"That's more than enough don't you think?" she said firmly.

The SDC heiress spun on her heel ready to put someone in their place for interrupting her...until she had to look up to see who she was facing, the ready rebuke dying on her lips. "...Pyrrha Nikos?"

"This is the third time today that you have yelled at Ruby and she hasn't deserved any of it."

"What?! She..."

Pyrrha cut her off again. "_You_ are the one that wasn't paying attention and wheeled your luggage cart right up behind her, and _you _were the one waving an unsecured and leaking bottle of Dust in her face. Despite the fact that she apologized when she wasn't even at fault, you still found it necessary to yell at her."

Weiss was stunned. "Now listen here..."

"And as if that wasn't enough you needlessly went after her again before the Headmaster's speech for absolutely no reason." The strength of her voice and the intensity in her eyes actually made the smaller girl back up a step. "Now this. Stop acting so entitled and bossy...you're not on your estate in Atlas anymore so drop the attitude."

The white haired girl was nearly speechless. "I...well you certainly aren't anything like I expected you to be," she managed, though the haughty tone was a little shaky.

"Good," she said, turning to walk away, her long ponytail whipping around behind her. "That means I must be doing something right then."

"Whoa, way to go Ruby," Yang said cheerfully. "You hit the jackpot making friends with her. I approve." Anyone willing to stand up for Ruby in the same way she would was alright by her. She'd have to introduce herself tomorrow and thank her.

Weiss was so stunned that she simply went back to her space and didn't say another word.

Pyrrha returned to her sleeping bag and sat there, staring at the floor. She was actually shaking a little bit. "I can't believe that I just did that," she said quietly. "Why did I do that? I _don't_ do that. I don't talk to people that way."

_"You were looking out for a friend," _Ichigo said._ "A friend who by the looks of it is kind of awkward around other people. You didn't do anything wrong."_

"I know I wanted to stand up for myself more, but that's not what I was doing."

_"Actually you were,"_ he countered. _"You didn't like what you saw going on, it was wrong so you put a stop to it. You may have been doing it to protect someone else but whether it's done for them or for yourself you would still have the same belief. You didn't do anything wrong Pyrrha, you did good and I'm proud of you for taking a stand and doing it. It's what someone who understands the principles behind being a Huntress would do, and it's something you would do for a friend. I doesn't matter if you just met her."_

"I guess," she sighed. "It just feels a little weird. I'm not used to being that forward or aggressive."

_"Time and place,"_ he said. _"And you'll get used to it. Believe it or not standing up for yourself and speaking your mind does get easier."_

She stayed quiet for several minutes, watching as the others in the room began to start settling in for the night. "Can I ask you something Ichigo?"

_"Sure. Ask me anything,"_ he responded.

"Do you...do you think I would have fit in with your friends?"

_"Fit in? Pyrrha, they would have loved you," _he answered, the fondness evident in his tone. _"No doubt about it. And that goes double for my sisters."_

"I know I can see them in your memories but I wish I could have met them," she said. "Sorry, I don't mean to make you sad or open any wounds."

_"It's fine Pyrrha," _he assured her gently._ "Yeah, I miss them all, a lot, but I can visit them in my memories whenever I want. If anything doing so has helped me come to terms with the guilt I've felt since the end. Seeing the times I spent with them and the times they all had to knock a little sense into me made me realize that blaming myself was a dead end street. They never would have blamed me for it and never would let me if they were here now. I really wish you could have met them too. Heh, you'd fit in perfectly and make a fine addition to the Ryoka."_

"Thank you," she whispered, emotion evident in her voice. "I'm honoured that you think so."

They spent a while in companionable silence, watching a few of his memories of his friends and family in lighter moments before finally calling it a night.

* * *

_"You're such a brute," _he chided as she landed on a large tree branch after smashing through several others with her shield to kill her momentum. Launching students off of a platform on a cliff and sending them hurtling out over the Emerald Forest certainly was a novel way to start an initiation. Ozpin was either a sadist or he had a rather eccentric sense of humour.

She smirked as she brought Milo up in its rifle form and checked the area. "That's rich coming from you."

_"Maybe we should get you an eye patch and call you Kenpachi,"_ he teased.

"I might look good with an eye patch," she countered. "If we did that I guess that would make you Yachiru right?"

_"I am not dying my hair pink."_

Screaming off to their left brought their attention to Jaune Arc, cartwheeling uncontrollably through the sky and obviously lacking any kind of a landing strategy. She transformed Milo to Javelin form, took aim, and let fly. There was a distant 'thunk' and a weak thank you called out in their direction.

Ichigo let out a sigh. "I couldn't let him crash," she said in her defence. "Even with Aura the landing could kill him or at least severely injure him."

_"I know, and I would have done the same thing,"_ he admitted. _"But you'll likely end up with him as a partner now and we both know that so far he doesn't look like a good candidate to become a Huntsman. Especially if his performance in the locker room this morning was any indication. He looks like he's more concerned with getting a date."_

She started climbing down the tree. "He didn't seem to get the message, no matter how blunt or insulting Weiss got with him."

_"I'm still shocked that she had the gall to approach you and try to sweet talk you about being her partner,"_ he said sourly. _"And that half-assed apology she recited was pathetic."_

"I'm not the one she should have been apologizing to. She owes that to Ruby."

_"And she didn't like it much when you told her that either. She didn't waste much time moving on afterwards."_

"That may have had as much to do with trying to get away from Jaune and his horrible pick up line attempts," she said. "It's terrible to say, but better he followed her with them rather than staying and using them on me."

_"What, not your type?"_ he teased.

"I don't even know what my type is," she answered. "I'm still trying to figure myself out."

_"Well at least he did say one thing that was right...hot stuff."_

She nearly missed the last branch and ended up hanging by one arm. "I was planning on dropping in for a relaxing swim tonight. I think I might have to drown you when I do."

_"If your face is still that red you'll turn all the water in the lake to steam."_

"Sh-shut up!"

* * *

"So Jaune, any room left on your team?" she asked innocently of the boy hanging from the tree by his speared hoodie.

"Very funny," he groused half heartedly.

_"You know he can see right down your corset right?"_

_"Quiet perv-berry." _He seemed to be taking great delight in how hard he could make her blush.

After getting Jaune down and being thanked for saving him from being splattered across the forest, they set off to the north and their ultimate destination. Several minutes later, after an accidental slap with a tree branch and a resulting cut cheek, and they were on to the next anomaly regarding one Jaune Arc.

"Pffft. Of course I know what Aura is. Do _you_ know what Aura is?"

She heard what sounded like Ichigo face palming. Hard. _"He did not just say that. Tell me I was hearing things. He could not have just said what I think he said."_

_"He said it," _she sighed mentally.

One explanation and the unlocking of his Aura later...

_"How the hell did he get into Beacon?!"_ Ichigo growled. _"Not only wasn't his Aura unlocked...he didn't even know what it was!"_

_"This is troubling," _she responded worriedly._ "Unfortunately out in the middle of a Grimm infested forest isn't the time or place to try and get an answer."_

They continued on through the forest and luckily they had the good fortune of not encountering any Grimm. While she was sure that she could handle most anything that might show up, she couldn't say she had that same confidence in her new partner. If any of the soulless beasts did come at them she was pretty sure that she would have to fight for the both of them.

After maybe fifteen minutes of travel they came across a cave, the large entrance partially blocked by large slabs of rock.

"Think this is it?" Jaune asked.

"No Jaune, I don't," she answered. "Were you listening when Professor Ozpin told us what our objective was?"

"Of course," he said as he rooted around in the brush, coming up with a stick. "We have to find a relic and bring it back."

_"Yeah, he wasn't really listening,"_ Ichigo sighed.

"Yes Jaune," she conceded. "and the relics are at an abandoned temple at the end of the forest...and this isn't it. And do you see this painting beside the entrance?" It depicted several people fighting against giant monsters. "That would be a warning sign."

"It looks pretty old," he scoffed. "It's fine. Couldn't hurt to take a look right?"

"Actually yes, it really could," she warned. "_He's going to do it anyway isn't he?"_

_"Yeah, he is. You could always knock him over the head and drag him away," _Ichigo suggested.

_"Tempting, but I don't think assaulting another student would help my chances of passing initiation."_ She sighed. _"Looks like I'll have to follow him to make sure he doesn't get himself killed."_

_"If there is something in there maybe it'll scare some sense into him."_

While they were momentarily distracted by their conversation, Jaune had turned his stick into a torch and was ready to enter the cave.

_"That was fast," _Ichigo commented._ "What was this kid, a boy scout?"_

As many caves were, this one was damp to go with the cloying darkness and had a deep, earthy smell. The floor was uneven and not that easy to navigate so they were moving cautiously, Jaune's small torch providing just enough light to clearly see maybe a foot in front of them.

"This is not it Jaune," she reminded him again.

"Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you humour me for like maybe five more feet?"

He promptly tripped and fell, dropping the torch into a puddle.

_"Our hero," _Ichigo snarked.

"Do you feel that?" she asked. She was referring to the air, which had been getting warmer as they progressed. Not necessarily a good sign.

"Soul crushing regret?" he asked.

"Besides that," she said, rolling her eyes. "I mean the fact that it's gotten warmer. Which likely means that there's something in here we'd rather not run into."

"Hey, what's that?" he asked. There was a faint yellowish glow coming from somewhere up ahead. He didn't wait for an answer, instead stumbling forward through the dark toward the glow.

"This is not going to end well," she muttered. By the time she caught up with him he was trying to catch the glowing, yellow object, which avoided him easily enough.

"Bad relic," he admonished.

"Jaune!" she called. "Don't..."

Too late.

He lunged and caught it...and promptly found himself lifted off the ground. Below him, ten red eyes glowed, revealing the carapace of a Death Stalker. He screamed, quite loudly and rather girlishly and she beat feet back for the entrance. There was no room to fight in the cave and she couldn't see well enough anyway. By running, the Grimm followed her and didn't concern itself with Jaune hanging from its stinger.

She just made it back outside when the Death Stalker slammed through the slabs of rock that had been placed to narrow the entrance as if they were nothing, several chunks just missing her. This Death Stalker was huge and old. Scars crisscrossed its carapace and moss and grass was growing out of several joints in its armour. It had probably been dormant for a long time until they had disturbed it.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune blubbered. "It's not the relic! It's not!"

_"No shit genius!"_ Ichigo snarled.

"I should have left him in the tree," she sighed. "Jaune! Don't let..."

The Death Stalker flicked its tail and sent him flying across the forest, screaming all the way.

"...go," she finished.

_"Well, at least he's flying in the right direction," _Ichigo observed sarcastically._ "If he survives he might get a relic before you do."_

The Grimm faced her, hissing and clacking its massive pincers. She glared back at it, switched Milo to rifle form, and promptly shot one of its eyes out. Her marksmanship had been one of her weaker skills but ever since she started training with Ichigo she had worked hard at improving it. With the Death Stalker momentarily distracted by the pain, she got a running head start before it came after her.

"I really wish I could Flash Step right about now," she quipped.

_"You and me both,"_ he agreed.

* * *

For its size the Death Stalker could move surprisingly fast. She zigzagged through the trees to try and slow it down, but unfortunately the beast was big enough and heavily armoured enough that it would simply smash through or knock over any trees that were in its way. Thankfully that did stall its momentum just enough that she could keep ahead of it. At least until the trees thinned and she entered the clearing around the temple ruins that was her ultimate goal for the day.

She noted idly that for some reason Jaune was sprawled on the ground with Weiss Schnee sitting in the middle of his back. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know and right now she didn't have time to care. She jumped to avoid a swipe from one of her pursuer's pincers and upon landing she had to duck a swipe of the other one. She nearly went down but managed to stay on her feet, though she lost some ground which caused her a few seconds later to get smashed in the back by a pincer swipe that sent her flying halfway across the clearing.

She landed hard at the feet of the other students gathered in front of the ruins. She was spitting out a mouthful of dirt when she heard Yang say something about 'now we can all die together', and Ruby ran off to attack the giant scorpion, totally missing the sarcasm in her sister's words. By the time she had caught her breath, and plucked a rock and a clump of grass out of her cleavage, Ruby had been pinned down by a Giant Nevermore's projectile feathers and Weiss had saved her from being impaled on the Death Stalker's stinger by encasing it in a block of ice.

"Great, now we have two old Grimm to fight," she sighed. _"Who did you tick off in your former life Strawberry?"_

_"A lot of people probably," _Ichico responded._ "But I'm not much of a believer in Karma." _

She got up and stretched her back. The Grimm had hit her hard and her landing had been hard, but her Aura had kept her from taking any real damage. That didn't mean that she still wasn't going to be a little bit sore though. She gave Milo and Akuo a quick check to make sure they were undamaged.

"Alright," she said aloud, though only Ichigo heard her. "Time to go earn our way into Beacon."

* * *

Several hours later she was sitting on an exercise bike in Beacon's gym. After the activities of the day she had decided to skip her nightly run but she did want to check out the training facilities and she wasn't disappointed with the array of equipment that was available for the students to make use of. Even then, she had worn her old Sanctum track suit just in case she changed her mind. She had asked Professor Goodwitch about acquiring one for Beacon and had been told about a clothing store in Vale that the Academy dealt with for such things.

She was a little tired but it was a good tired. She felt proud, she was now officially a student of Beacon Academy. She was now on a team with Jaune, the orange haired girl, Nora Valkyrie, and the calm boy she had seen her with on the airship, Lie Ren. Team JNPR. Ruby was on a team with her sister Yang Xiao Long, the dark haired, probable Faunus Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee. Team RWBY.

Together they had defeated the Grimm. Those that would become Team RWBY handled the Nevermore while JNPR took down the Death Stalker. It was quite the achievement for a bunch of first year students to take out two old Grimm like that and she had already heard whispers starting among the other students about what an achievement it was. Of course there were a few that refused to believe it but that was their problem.

_"I still don't like that the Headmaster made Jaune the leader of your team,"_ Ichigo groused. _"He should have made you the leader."_

"I'm not ready for that," she said self consciously. "I'm just learning to stand for myself and find myself and my direction. I'm not in a position to be able lead others."

_"I think you'd do just fine, but I get where you're coming from and I certainly won't push you if you don't think you're ready for something like that. That can be a lot of pressure that you don't really need right now. But, I can't help but wonder about the Headmaster's decision"._

"I'm sure he had his reasons," she said. "Jaune did actually handle himself fairly well once we had to stand and fight. He remained quite composed really and he did give good direction. It seems that he might have a head for tactics. Under pressure, while sloppy, he did actually handle his shield and sword well enough to get by."

_"Throwing him right into the fire to see how he does I guess,"_ Ichigo said. _"Something I'm not unfamiliar with. I just hope he takes it seriously. He sure didn't show much to us before the fight at the ruins."_

"True," she conceded. "And it was becoming rather frustrating. Despite that he does seem like a nice enough person and I would like to see him succeed."

_"Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see that too,"_ he said. _"I'm not wishing for anything bad to happen to him, I'm just playing a little bit of devil's advocate here. Plus, he's your partner and that's going to put extra pressure on you. Initiation proved that. As good as you are Pyrrha, even you can't watch his back all the time in a fight."_

"So what do you think his story is?" she asked. "Not only wasn't his Aura unlocked, he didn't even seem to know what it was. Learning about Aura is one of the earliest things you learn at a combat school. And despite what he did at the ruins, it seems obvious that he hasn't had any significant training with his sword and shield. Possibly none at all."

_"It seems pretty unlikely that he ever attended a combat school when you consider those two things," _Ichigo said._ "I'm pretty sure that if you don't even know what Aura is you aren't going to advance. Even if someone was giving him private combat training it should show even a little bit, but I see nothing that would suggest that."_

"His stance is not close to correct and his footwork is virtually non existent," she critiqued. "His grip on both the shield and the sword are off and he doesn't seem strong enough to hold them up in action for very long. He holds the shield too low and he's all over the place when he swings the sword. It reminds me of my first day of weapon training."

_"You were nine and holding a wooden sword and even then you looked better than he does." _He chuckled. "_You also had pig tails and were missing one of your front teeth. Too cute."_

She laughed. "That's one of Mom's favourite pictures, me standing there grinning and clutching that wooden sword."

_"You're going to train him?"_ he asked after a moment.

"I think I pretty much have to," she answered. "The way he is now he'll be lucky to survive combat class let alone another excursion into the field. If he can't at least defend himself then he puts the rest of the team in jeopardy."

_"So, what's your plan?"_

"I want to give everyone time to settle in first," she said. "A couple of weeks at least, maybe a little more. I want to see what his work habits are like both in combat class and academically. Of course I also want to try and find out what his story is, what kind of training or education he's had towards eventually becoming a Huntsman."

_"With what we have to go on so far it's looking like the answer is none," _he said. _"Problem is, that should not be possible. If he hasn't then he should not have been able to get in here." _

She frowned. "And what that suggests is not good. Hypothetically speaking, if he somehow managed to fake his way in here I can't believe that the Headmaster wouldn't notice. I _know_ they checked and verified my training and my grades at Sanctum before they accepted me."

_"Considering the reputation of this school, if that's what Jaune did I can't see the Headmaster missing it either," _he said in agreement._ "There's no way that he isn't aware of it."_

She sighed. "And here I was hoping that my time at Beacon would be drama free, or at least as drama free as possible anyway."

_"Welcome to the Kurosaki Effect," _he teased. _"Trouble, drama, whatever it is it's likely to find us. It always found me."_

"Wonderful," she said, rolling her eyes. "So I can blame you for it. Let's just hope that our hypothetical isn't the reality."

_"Well now you've gone and jinxed it,"_ he griped humorously.

She grinned evilly. "Just remember Strawberry, if it happens to me, it happens to you too."

* * *

**AN:** Trying to be more outgoing/forceful/aggressive isn't easy for someone like Pyrhha and comes with difficulties. Change, no mater how much you made need it or desire it isn't always easy of fun.

Standing up for herself a little more means she wouldn't just blindly follow Jaune into the cave, or that she is going to be quite so tolerant of his rather naive, unprepared and unfocused actions. Comes from hanging with Ichigo.

Been trying to have a few light moments between her and the Strawberry and show the comfort she has gained in dealing with him. Hopefully those attempts have been entertaining.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you'll leave a review and tell me what you think.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.


	3. Confrontations

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

A few days later than I expected to be, but I had a few days were I was so damn tired I couldn't hardly see straight let alone concentrate on writing anything. Haven't been feeling that well the last couple of days either so that delayed the end of the chapter and the proofing and editing of it.

There are probably one or two chapters left for this, not sure really. As with A Chance Encounter I'm just letting this take me where it wants to go so it's setting its own pace.

Read and enjoy. Hopefully you'll leave a review.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 3: Confrontations**_

Getting to know the other members of the team as they settled in over the first few weeks was easy enough since they all seemed to be nice and friendly people. Nora's boisterous, over the top, and dare she say eccentric nature wasn't as hard to take as one might think. There was nothing mean spirited in it but she got the impression from time to time that it wasn't a natural behaviour that had always been a part of her. It seemed almost like she was trying to distract herself from something. Something in her gut told her that the excitable ginger was damaged and trying to hide her wounds behind a laugh and a smile and outrageous outbursts.

Ichigo said it reminded him of his friend Orihime who's mind was often off in the ether thinking and daydreaming all kinds of weird stuff. He suspected it was how she coped with a less than happy past when her brother, only fifteen years old at the time, had taken her away from the family home and away from their drunk and abusive parents so that he could look after her himself.

Lie Ren was very thoughtful and quiet and a sea of calm next to Hurricane Nora. With just a few words he seemed to be able to reign her in when necessary. They didn't say much about their past but to say that they had been together for a long time. They seemed quite devoted to each other despite Nora's insistence that they weren't 'together, together'. Ichigo scoffed at that, stating that _"they're probably the only two who can't see that they're definitely 'together, together'."_

That of course had prompted her to tease him about being so knowledgeable about such things since, according to his own memories, he had been totally oblivious to all of the girls and women that had been interested in him. He shot back that her true love was a mirror and a hand held shower head. Back and forth it went for twenty minutes as they engaged in a hand fight on the end of the dock in their inner world, naked for the distraction factor, and trying to push each other into the water.

As for Jaune, he was a genuinely nice guy but at times a little clueless and possibly even more socially inept than she was. His horrid attempts to get Weiss to go out with him and his inability to get the point when shot down, often brutally, were more than proof enough of that. Academically he was mediocre at best. Part of it was not applying himself and part of it was that he was severely lacking in knowledge that he should have already had before entering Beacon. Knowledge he should have gained at a combat school.

His combat abilities were even worse and unfortunately his lack of training and skill was on full display for all to see during the training bouts in Professor Goodwitch's class. The more she saw of his attempts to fight, the more convinced she was that he hadn't received a minute of training before he got to Beacon and he didn't seem to be learning a single thing from his string of defeats in class. He kept making the same moves and mistakes over and over again and quite frankly it was painful to watch.

She wanted to help him but she needed to approach it the right way and that was difficult to do when she found herself at times getting a little bit angry at what she saw. Just angry enough that she held off on saying anything to him for fear that she would let him see it. She prided herself on how hard she worked to hone her skills, all of the sweat and sacrifice to take the natural skills she had and turn them into something more. Becoming a Huntress meant a lot to her. Remnant needed people to protect those who couldn't protect themselves and she wanted to be one of those people.

Jaune claimed to want that too but the level of work and effort just wasn't there nor was the level of skill that he should have already possessed. Did he think this was all going to be easy and that things would just fall into place for him? He was totally unprepared in all areas and it ticked her off that he seemed to think he could just coast along as he was and be fine without having to actually put in the work. True, he did show some angst at how badly he was being manhandled in combat class, but he also wasn't seeking any help to improve upon his absent skills. Nor was he doing anything to get physically stronger or improve his poor endurance.

She wanted to suggest that they all set up a training routine, sparring against each other and doing physical training together, but she needed to somehow address the issue with Jaune first. She was sure that Ren and Nora would be willing to help but she felt that she needed to confront him herself first and find out what his deal was before she made it a team issue.

That didn't mean that she hadn't tried to give him a gentle nudge here and there. As their friendship grew she got a little more insight into what made him tick and she tried to appeal to those points to get him to study a little more seriously or join her or the others at the gym. She offered to spar with him to give him an opportunity to practice. Now and then there would be an uptick in his 'level of engagement' as one of her old instructors would put it, but nothing that was sustained for very long.

Her own team wasn't the only group of people she had been getting more familiar with. Ruby was quickly becoming one of her favourite people at Beacon and she was glad that she had introduced herself to her and Jaune on that first day. She may be young, naive, and a little immature at times, but there was no questioning the younger girl's desire and drive to not only become a Huntress, but to be the very best Huntress that Remnant had ever seen. She was definitely skilled and she had been astounded to see how well Ruby handled her Crescent Rose and she had been honoured to face her in the combat arena. She had won easily enough, a nod to her experience against other people as a tournament fighter, but Ruby had accounted herself well and she had told her so, putting a big smile on the girl's face.

Getting to know Ruby meant getting to know Yang. Big sister had to look out for little sister after all and it was obvious that Yang would do anything for Ruby. She suspected the same went for anyone who became friends with the blonde, she seemed to have that vibe about her. Most of the time Yang was outgoing and warm and far too full of horrible puns.

She was also a free spirit which Pyrrha found she envied and hoped to emulate to a degree. She didn't think she could be as forward and as brazen as Yang was, not outwardly anyway though she did seem to be a bit more adventurous and forward in the inner world, but anything above her current more reserved nature she would take as an improvement.

Blake was quiet and took a little time to get to know. It was as if the girl was afraid to commit to a friendship without an undeclared trial period and even then she remained a bit...distant. It didn't hurt that they sat next to one another in Dr. Oobleck's history class and it allowed them to gain a bit of familiarity with each other which seemed to ease things a little.

Weiss, well, there had been a bit of a surprise there considering the sour note of their initial meeting. On the evening of their first day of classes she had encountered the SDC heiress in one of the student lounges, looking rather out of sorts. Apparently in an episode of arrogant entitlement she had told Ruby that she should not have been named team leader. When she started glowering at the girl in a very Ichigo like fashion, Weiss had hastily continued the tale, relating her plea to Professor Port and that she had justly and unceremoniously been put in her place.

As it turned out Weiss was wanting to change her own behaviour as well just as she was, but was apparently not faring too well in that endeavour thus far. She apologized for her behaviour both that morning, when she had been seeking to hitch their two aspects of fame and public notoriety together and ride the wave, and for her behaviour the previous day. She wasn't feeling particularly proud of herself for failing so miserably at trying to forge a new path for herself.

Since then they had gotten along well, though her personality was still kind of prickly at times and she could clearly see under the bluster there was a girl who also knew all too well the crushing weight and the pain of loneliness. Fortunately for both of them it seemed that loneliness was no longer going to be a problem as the two teams had quickly become friends. Besides their time in class the other activity where they shared time together was during meals, like they were right now, and the current topic of discussion was the sad fact that Jaune had somehow managed to catch the bullying attention of one Cardin Winchester.

Now one didn't have to be an expert on Remnant's high society scene to know that the Winchester's were a very prominent family. Or that they were terribly racist and on a good day were just merely condescending to anyone who wasn't one of them and Cardin was definitely a Winchester through and through. The apple never fell far from the tree, especially in that family.

"He just likes to kid around," Jaune said unconvincingly when confronted about Cardin bullying him. "You know, practical jokes."

"He tried to hip check you down the stairs," Yang drawled.

"He pushes you out of his way and knocks your books out of your hands at every opportunity," Weiss reminded him.

"He made your shield open up and you got stuck in the doorway," Ruby said. "The big meanie."

"He stuffed you in a rocket propelled locker and launched it," Pyrrha said.

"I didn't land that far from the school," he muttered.

She nearly slammed her head into the table. "_Idiot!"_ Ichigo growled.

"He could have injured you Jaune," she said tightly. "Seriously. He's not just trying to humiliate you, he wants to do damage. Or did you forget that Professor Goodwitch had to tell him to stop during your spar in combat class this morning?"

"We should break his legs!" Nora declared enthusiastically.

"I'm not against it," she confirmed.

The others were left momentarily speechless. They weren't sure what shocked them more, the fact that the normally respectful and polite redhead had not disagreed with the suggestion, or the vitriol that tinged her words when she did.

"That may be a little extreme," Ren said, being the voice of reason, as he often was. Especially when Nora was involved. "But you cannot let him continue to treat you this way Jaune."

"He's not just a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."

"That doesn't make it alright," Pyrrha said sternly.

They heard someone cry out in pain, not so surprisingly from the direction where Cardin and his team were sitting. There was more proof of what a dick Cardin really was. A girl from their history class, Velvet, a rabbit Faunus, was literally in Cardin's grip. He was pulling on one of her long rabbit ears, laughing and calling her a freak while his team laughed with him, braying like idiots. He kept pulling despite the girl's pleas of how much it hurt.

"Disgusting," she growled, the others around the table echoing her displeasure. Yet, not them nor anyone else in the room moved to help the girl. Where were the other members of her team? They should have intervened even if no one else would. She stood and turned towards the altercation.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Jaune asked.

She turned a hard gaze on him, then on the others. "To do what no one else in this room apparently is willing to."

Cardin and his crew never saw her coming but everyone else in the room did as she strode over to the altercation with a very dangerous look in her eyes. With her left hand she grabbed his wrist and twisted it in such a way that he had no choice but to let go of Velvet's wounded ear. Before he could utter a sound she had grabbed his left ear with her right hand, twisted and yanked him howling to his feet, swung him around, and slammed his face hard into the table, right into the half eaten remains of his lunch.

One of his team, Russel she thought his name was, tried to come at her from behind. A right footed mule kick caught him under the chin and sent him off his feet and arcing backwards, landing hard on the floor several feet away. A severe glare froze the other two morons of Team CRDL in their tracks.

"Get lost!" she growled. No one else saw it, but whatever they saw in her eyes was enough to send them running and they didn't even bother to stop and collect a nearly unconscious Russel on their way out. Velvet had taken the opportunity to get away, which was good, so it was now just her, Cardin, and a room full of silent students.

"Get the hell off me!" Cardin grunted through the pain, a face full of leftovers, and the pieces of a broken dinner plate.

She twisted his ear more, eliciting a near shriek out of him and shoved his face harder into the table. "Shut up!" she barked at him. "You don't get to speak. Get used to how this feels Winchester. Get used to the pain and public humiliation because if I see you do something like this again, if you keep picking on other students, then _you_ are going to have a problem with a bully making _your_ life miserable."

Twisting his ear back the other way she flung him on top of his still dazed team mate. "Now take you friend and get out of here!"

He got up, murder in his eyes as he clutched his wounded ear. The glare didn't look overly threatening with the remains of his lunch smashed all over his face. "You're going to regret this!" he growled.

"I already do," she shot back. "You're a disgusting pig and I'd rather not be within ten feet of you." She took a step towards him and he actually flinched a bit. "Now why are you still here?"

He glared at her again as he grabbed Russel by the arm and dragged him away. She turned and headed for the other exit to the room, passing near her table but not stopping.

"Whoa!" she heard Ruby exclaim.

"That was awesome!" Nora crowed. "And even a little hot."

She nearly stumbled at that as she reached the doors and went through.

_"Pyrrha?"_ Ichigo spoke up. He could feel it, her emotional state was starting to shift just like it did after she confronted Weiss. Hopefully the adrenaline coursing through her system right now would keep her going for a little while yet.

"I'm going to find Velvet and see if she's alright," she responded.

_"The washroom down the hall would be the closest place to go if she hasn't gone back to her dorm,"_ he suggested.

When she got there she took a moment to compose herself before she went in. Velvet was kind of timid and skittish and this incident wouldn't have helped that any. It wouldn't be helpful to the situation if she just barged in like a bull in a china shop to look for her. With a final calming breath she eased the door open and entered, finding the girl at the far end of the row of sinks, trying in vain to check in the mirror for damage at the base of her wounded ear. She could hear her sniffling and trying not to cry.

"Velvet?" she called softly. The girl nearly jumped out of her skin and ended up backed up against the wall.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Pyrrha assured her. "I just wanted to check and see if you were alright."

A shaky hand gently touched the around the base of the ear. "It hurts, but I can't see if anything is torn."

"May I look?" she asked. When the Faunus girl reluctantly nodded and stepped away from the wall she walked over to her. Initially she couldn't see much.

"I'm going to move your hair aside so I can see better okay?" she asked.

"Okay," Velvet answered quietly.

She began gently moving strands of hair aside so she could get a better look at the base of her ear and her scalp. The girl flinched once when she touched a spot close to the base of the ear.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I don't see any broken skin but the bottom of your ear and the scalp around it is a little red and might be starting to bruise a bit."

"My Aura should take care of it by this evening," Velvet explained. Shyly, she looked up. "Thank you for helping me. He just wouldn't stop."

"You're welcome," she said with a gentle smile. "But I'm pretty sure you could have taken him. I think I know why you didn't though."

"Even if it was in self defence all some people would see is a Faunus attacking a Human," Velvet lamented.

"And a Human with a prominent name at that," she added. "Even if that name is easily associated with bigotry. People with his attitude shouldn't even be here."

"He'll be coming after you now too," Velvet warned, concern evident in her voice. "He would have anyway because you helped me but you beat him up."

"He and I were going to have an issue anyway since he's been bullying my partner," she said. "I can handle whatever he and his team want to dish out."

"Just please be careful," Velvet pleaded. "I don't think he's the type to stop because someone fought back."

"I will," she assured her. "You do the same and if you ever need help again just ask. If you're alone like that again you can always join us, I know the other's wouldn't mind."

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "And thank you again for helping me."

"You're welcome."

Velvet left to get to her next class but she stayed, her hands gripping the edges of the sink to keep them from shaking as she looked into the mirror.

_"Pyrrha,"_ Ichigo prodded gently.

"I didn't even give him a chance to stop," she responded, her voice wavering. "I just attacked."

He sighed. _"What you did was pretty much exactly what I would have done. It looks like that aspect of my personality is influencing you somehow but that shouldn't be possible. I think."_

"You think?"

_"Look, I'm no expert on any of this stuff, but it shouldn't be possible for me to influence you that way. I'm your soul. I can't make you do or say anything. I don't have any ability to control anything that you do and I wouldn't do that even if I could. I don't think I could even interfere if it was a matter of life or death. The only difference between me and any other soul is that I remember my past life and I can talk to you and interact with you in an inner world."_

"Could it be something that's totally subconscious?" she wondered. "I'm pretty sure that if I wasn't trying to change I would have ended up just sitting there like everyone else did. Could I be unconsciously mirroring what you would have done because I'm trying to be more proactive in my life?"

She did want to change and be more proactive, but thus far her actions had been what she felt to be on the extreme side, especially compared to the way she had always acted in the past. It was too abrupt and she felt like she wasn't fully in control of herself. She believed Ichigo when he said that he couldn't exercise any kind of control over her actions and she believed it when he said he never would even if he could. Acting the way she had and not knowing why was a very helpless and disconcerting feeling.

_"I wish I knew,"_ he said. _"But I don't know anymore about psychology than I do about soul dynamics. Damn it, where's freaking Hat N Clogs when you need him. He'd probably be able to figure this out."_

They heard the door open. "Pyrrha...are you here?" It was Nora.

_"She sounds pretty subdued for her," _he observed.

She seemed to sink even further into herself. "_I did give them a pretty harsh look and had some hard words for them. They're going to think I'm angry with them."_

_"Talk to them. They're your friends and I'm pretty sure they'll forgive the outburst. You'll all be together for dinner so there will be plenty of time then."_

"Pyrrha?" Nora asked again as she came into view. "Are you okay?"

She gave as much of a smile as she could manage. "I'm okay Nora, I'm just..." she sighed. "I'm sorry for causing a scene and for the way I spoke to everyone. I'll apologize to everyone and explain myself tonight at dinner."

"Well it wasn't like Cardin didn't deserve what he got," Nora said. "I was serious when I suggested breaking his legs."

"And I was serious when I pretty much agreed...and when I beat him up, but that's not the way I normally do things." She sighed again. "And the way I spoke to all of you is not the way I normally do things either. I was wrong."

"Nah, you weren't," Nora said. "I think not doing anything was worse and I don't feel very good about it. But," she suddenly grabbed her arm an began leading her to the exit. "We'll have to talk about it later because if we don't get going we're going to be late for class."

She let the usually hyper ginger lead her. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to concentrate on class right now but not going wasn't really an option and she was glad for Nora's distraction.

* * *

Sleep was proving to be an elusive thing for her. At dinner she had cleared the air with her friends, explaining everything about her actions to them, minus Ichigo's existence of course, but it hadn't cleared her mind or her conscience. She explained enough about her past to them that they understood her desire to change the way she did things and they gained an understanding of how difficult changing long held behaviour could be and they forgave her for her actions at lunch. Out of all of them, Weiss seemed to resonate with her story the most.

Long held behaviour, that was the problem. When you had been doing something or in this case specifically acting in a certain way for a long time, especially when that was the way you had been acting right from the very beginning, change was a hard thing to accomplish. It didn't matter if you recognized the need to change and it didn't really matter how drastic or mild that change was, it was still not an easy thing and it was only made more difficult if your confidence was shaky or lacking all together.

Standing up for herself more and being more assertive and at times even more aggressive didn't mean that she couldn't still be kind and respectful to others, but not asserting herself meant falling back to being someone's puppet again and just blindly following along, or being a doormat for people to walk over or to standing idly by and not getting involved when she really should.

The incidents with Weiss and with Cardin had been too much, or at least too much too fast and were such a sharp departure from the way she had always been that it scared her. Change was difficult but sudden or uncontrolled change was jarring and frightening and came with a feeling that things were spinning out of your control.

She sighed dejectedly as she stared at the moonlit ceiling. A walk might do her some good but the staff would likely frown at students wandering the halls or campus in the middle of the night. Besides, she'd risk waking up the others if she was stumbling around in the dark trying to get dressed. A book or listening to some music didn't sound very appealing tonight either. She didn't really want to disturb Ichigo but the inner world seemed like her only good option...heh, just what she needed right now, to get even _further_ inside her own head.

She appeared at the base of the dock and glanced up toward the cottage. There was a dim glow of a light in what passed as the living room, but little else. Maybe he wasn't up. It dawned on her at that moment that even after all this time she didn't know if he actually slept. She had just assumed that if she was asleep so was her soul, or it's avatar at least. Ugh, she never knew exactly how to refer to him in that regard.

She walked to the end of the dock, watching the moonlight reflect off the water. Closing her eyes for a moment she concentrated on the sound of the water gently lapping at the shore, letting the soothing sound ease her anxiety a bit. She didn't know how much time had passed when she sensed Ichigo appearing next to her.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you," she apologized.

He shrugged. "You didn't. As for what you were thinking, I don't necessarily need to sleep but I do, usually when you do. Sometimes the bed or the couch," he gestured to the cottage. "Other times, though rarely, as the pure, formless energy state that is the soul. I was still up, watching a movie."

The first time he told her that she thought he was insane. Apparently anything that a person heard, read, saw, or experienced in their lives was subconsciously stored in their memories. Your conscious mind might miss things in a movie or conversation, or you might misread something or sort of half read it if you were a little distracted and recall of any memory could be spotty or seemingly nonexistent. But if you could access your subconscious memory you got a perfect playback of anything you ever experienced. She couldn't do it but as a soul he certainly could.

"I can't seem to get my mind off of what happened earlier," she said. "I mean, I'm okay with the fact that I wanted to stop Cardin from hurting Velvet and that I went to do so, but it's the way I did it that bothers me. I didn't even think about any other option, I just attacked."

"I wish I had an answer for you," he said. "Like I said before it should not be possible for me to have an effect on you that would influence you to do that. Hell, at this point I don't even know if that's what it was and I don't know how to go about finding out. I haven't been able to sense that there's anything out of place or different or that there's anything present that doesn't belong. Everything seems the same as it has been."

"No signs that I may have snapped a little and I'm losing it?" she offered with a tired smile.

"Hmm, nope. No cracks or signs of impending insanity." He gave her a soft look. "You may not be able to sleep but you do look like you need to get off your feet. Anxiety wears you out like nothing else."

An eye blink later and they were sitting on the couch inside the cottage living room. The screens at the end of the room were open so they still had a great view of the moonlit lake.

"The incident with Cardin isn't the only thing on your mind," he said.

She sighed. "I think its reached the point where I have to have a serious talk with Jaune. He's not progressing at... well, anything and he's not really putting in a lot of work to change that either. And just trying to shrug off Cardin's bullying...I mean, I can see it if he doesn't want someone else fighting that battle for him but he's not even trying to do _anything_ about it."

"I can't tell if it's because he can't stand up to him or if he doesn't know how," he responded. "There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of confidence there no matter what he does...short of his terrible attempts to get a date with Weiss and I'm not sure if that's any form of confidence or just blind infatuation."

"It's going to be a hard conversation to have and I'm not sure how or where to even start but it has to happen," she said. "He's already way behind and he can't afford to lose any more ground, both for his own good and for the team. I hate to say it but if he doesn't improve it's going to be difficult for us to perform well when we get to more team oriented lessons and training."

"I wish I could make this easier for you," he said sincerely. "But all I seem to be able to offer is moral support."

"I need as much of that as I can get," she said with a soft smile. "You've done so much for me already Ichigo and I appreciate every bit of it. The issue with my reactions, this issue with Jaune, I will get it figured out. Maybe it won't be easy but I guess if it was it wouldn't be worth it."

"Probably not," he grinned.

"Move forward right?"

"Move forward," he echoed, remembering the opening words of what Old Man Zangetsu had told him so long ago. "There's no other way."

They sat in easy silence, taking in the sight of the moon and stars. Eventually he felt her slump and her head touched down lightly on his shoulder. There was a small content smile on her face as she slept. He settled back and closed his eyes, happy to let her remain there. It felt nice actually, warm and just...right somehow. It was a line of thought that was probably better off remaining unexplored for now.

_"If Yoruichi saw this she'd never let me hear the end of it," _he mused as he let himself drift into sleep.

* * *

"Binoculars!" Jaune answered confidently and proudly.

The resounding slap heard immediately afterwards was Pyrrha's open hand meeting her forehead. She heard Ichigo muttering something in his native language. She didn't know what he was saying but it didn't sound like it should be anything complimentary.

The day had started out well enough. When she awoke in the inner world she was a bit embarrassed that she had fallen asleep on Ichigo's shoulder, though he didn't seem to mind. Retreating back to the outer world she changed her clothes and headed for the gym for her morning workout. As usual her team was still asleep and probably would be until just before she returned.

As she worked out she realized that she felt quite good this morning, Well rested and the anxiety from the night before had pretty much disappeared and she had to wonder if it all had anything to do with having used Ichigo as her pillow. As she thought about it she realized that when she was hanging around with Ichigo she seemed to relax and felt quite comfortable. Of course, maybe that's how one should feel with their own soul. It was a very confusing dynamic at times if she spent too much time trying to wrap her head around it. He had been an anomaly during his life so why should it be any different now, right?

The pleasant mood she was in carried on throughout the day to their last class, history with Dr. Oobleck, and that's were the curve peaked and things began to go downhill. Problem number one was that Jaune had been dozing off for the entire class, which began to sour her mood and remind her of how badly she needed to address things with him now.

The second problem was that he was sitting one row ahead and one seat to the right of Cardin. Now why he would sit that close to someone who had been bullying him, she couldn't begin to understand. Shouldn't the instinct of self preservation have kicked in at some point, prompting him to take a seat, say, on the other side of the room? Apparently self preservation and Jaune were not as well acquainted as she thought.

The subject of the moment was the Battle of Fort Castle during the Faunus Rights Revolution. The question that had been asked by Dr, Oobleck was, _'what was the advantage that the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?'_ At the moment the question was asked, Cardin flicked a wad of paper at Jaune, who startled awake and drew Dr. Oobleck's attention. Jaune had actually been coherent enough to have heard the question, but was flailing badly to come up with the answer, repeating the question slowly to buy himself time. She took pity on him and tried to help. She gestured to her eyes and mouthed the words 'night vision'.

She blamed herself for the stunningly wrong answer. She should have simply pointed to her eyes while mouthing the answer rather than circling her fingers and putting them to her eyes like a pair of glasses or binoculars. Though to be honest she wasn't entirely sure that it would have mattered. Cardin of course, thought it was hilarious, at least until Dr. Oobleck turned to him for an answer.

"Well I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," was his oh so intelligent response. It made her blood boil.

"Not the most enlightened or open minded of individuals are you Cardin?" she shot back, gaining a foul taste in her mouth from saying his name.

"What? You got a problem?" he seethed.

"Yes I do, and you're it. But unlike you I also have the answer. It's night vision." She gave him a withering look.

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep," Blake continued, picking up the thread. "His massive army was outmatched and the General was captured." She turned to Cardin. "Perhaps if he paid attention in class he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

_"Buurrrrnnnn!"_ Ichigo commented. _"Score one for the girl with the bow.'_

She tuned out Dr. Oobleck's reprimand to both Cardin and Jaune, preferring to try and burn a hole in the bully with her eyes as he had risen from his seat, fists clenched at his side in response to Blake's righteous dig at him.

_"He actually wants to pull a move like that right in front of Oobleck?" _Ichigo asked incredulously._ "What a freaking arrogant tool."_

_"This is the last straw," _she sighed._ "I can't avoid it any longer, I have to talk to Jaune as soon as class is done."_

_"He's sinking,"_ Ichigo said seriously. _"and at this rate he's going to drag the whole team under with him. I know you don't want to have this conversation with him, and you shouldn't need to."_

_"I know, but it has to be done if there's any hope of salvaging him and making this team work."_

When class ended she sent Nora and Ren on ahead and waited outside the room for Dr. Oobleck to finish with Jaune and Cardin. After a few minutes a green and white blur shot past her that had to be Oobleck, followed by Jaune and then Cardin who promptly shoved him to the floor and walked off laughing. "I really will break his legs you know," she said as she hauled him to his feet. "Come with me, we need to have a talk."

Considering that she was a lot stronger than he was, he didn't have much of a choice.

They ended up on the roof of one of the dorm buildings, the glowing green orbs of Beacon tower shining in the early twilight filling the view before them.

"I know I'm going through a tough time right now but I'm not _that_ depressed," he said as he looked over the edge. "I can always become a farmer or something."

_"That's the first thing that comes to his mind when a pretty girl drags him up to the roof?" _Ichigo interjected._ "Is he brain damaged?"_

She gaped at Jaune for a moment as she dealt with what Ichigo said. One would think by now that she wouldn't blush so easily at his teasing. Good thing it was getting dark and Jaune was oblivious. _'Pretty girl'_ in Ichigo's voice kept echoing through her head.

"Maybe you're not looking to jump, but I'm just about fed up enough to push you off," she said as neutrally as possibly. "Fortunately for you I have no desire to get expelled and sent to jail."

If he had been closer to the edge the boy may well have stumbled over the edge. "Pyrrha?" he mumbled in shock and confusion.

"So, a farmer. Giving up already? " she continued.

"Why shouldn't I?" he countered. "I'm failing miserably at this."

"Failing implies that you've been trying and I haven't seen you really do much of that yet."

"What!? I've been..."

"Falling asleep in class as often as not," she interrupted. "Your grades aren't very good and you barely study, and when you do half the time you're studying a comic book. Your combat skills have not improved since you got here either. What combat school did you go to before you came to Beacon?"

His eyes went wide and the panic on his face was evident. He slumped and sighed. "I...didn't. I didn't go to a combat school."

She sighed herself. "That's what I thought."

"You knew?"

"Jaune, one of the first things they teach you about in your first year of combat school is Aura. Not only wasn't yours unlocked, but you didn't even know what it was...which in itself is hard to believe. You never would have graduated with a locked Aura and not even knowing what it was." She shook her head. Even if he hadn't gone to a combat school he should have still known what Aura was, it wasn't like it was a secret. "And I've been training with weapons since I was nine so it's pretty obvious to me that you haven't had any instruction."

He sighed heavily again. "Your right. My father, my grandfather, my great grandfather...they were all heroes and I wanted to be one too. I got my hands on some fake transcripts and sent them in. When I got accepted I took Crocea Mors and made my way here."

"You never considered how tough it would be or the potential danger you would be putting yourself and other students in by coming in with no training or weapons skills did you?" she asked. The look of sudden revelation on his face answered that for her. Obviously he hadn't. "Did you also think that no one would notice your lack of training or that the Headmaster wouldn't know that your transcripts were faked?"

"The Headmaster knows!?"

She almost facepalmed. In her stead Ichigo did. "Jaune, he's a veteran Huntsman and he's been running this school for years. He checks the transcripts and verifies the credentials on all student submissions. Even with all of my accomplishments they checked mine before approving my application to come here. I'm pretty sure that he would know. He might be the only member of the staff that does though since the only one who's looked at you suspiciously so far is Professor Goodwitch."

"Why? Why would he let me in if he knows?" He was on the verge of outright panic.

She shrugged. "Only he can answer that. Maybe he wanted to give you a shot since you went to such lengths to get in. Maybe he saw enough from you on initiation day to let you stay. When it came down to a fight being necessary you did come up with a strategy and you used Crocea Mors more ably than you have at any point since. He must see something there. He not only let you stay, he made you the team leader."

_"Still not a fan of that,"_ Ichigo grumbled.

"Are you going to turn me in? Out me to everyone? I mean, there's always a chance that the Headmaster _doesn't_ actually know."

She gave him an _'are you serious?'_ look. "If I haven't by now, why would I? And what would be the point at this stage? I haven't said anything because I wanted to see if you could make a go of it, if you were going to put in the work."

_"Which he hasn't,"_ Ichigo added helpfully.

_"Oh shush," _she shot back. "My aim has always been to help you if you should need it, which you do and I've tried to subtly nudge you in the right direction."

"Oh God," he groaned, practically pulling his hair out.

"The fact of the matter is that you _are_ here and it would be a travesty to throw away this chance. Despite the lack of work you've put in I'm still willing to help you," she said, offering a smile. "I can train you with your sword and shield, I can get you into shape and get you stronger, and I can help you catch up on your studies. Not just for your sake but for the team you lead. You need to catch up to the rest of us if this team is going to function together and you're going to lead it. I'm your partner and I'm also your friend. I want to help."

He calmed down a bit and thought about it. It may have been the most serious thought she had seen him put into anything since she'd met him. He seemed to come to a conclusion and his posture straightened. He turned and looked at her.

"You're right. Despite the circumstances I am here and I can't waste the opportunity," he said firmly. "And you're right that I haven't worked nearly hard enough. I guess I had too many fantastical ideas of what the end result would be that I just floated along expecting it all to work out. I seem to have done that a lot in my life actually. Then when the reality of how hard this was started to set in I guess I was just waiting for the inevitable to happen and I'd be found out and given the boot."

She smiled again. "So you're going to take me up on my offer?"

"No," he answered, making her jaw nearly hit the surface of the roof. "I came here on my own to make it on my own, and I made a mess of it on my own. It's up to me to fix it on my own."

"_That little...he wants to get all prideful NOW! That idiot!" _

She took a step towards him. "Jaune..." she began, trying to sound understanding and not exasperated. With the truth laid bare to him and his dream in jeopardy she could understand him wanting to go it alone and prove himself, she really could, but he was not going to be able to do this without help. Besides, she was his partner as well as his friend and she had no desire to throw him to the wolves and they should be working together to get better. _Especially_ on something as important as this. That's what partners and friends did right?

"No Pyrrha," he said firmly, taking a step back. "I don't want your help. If I can't do this on my own than there's no point."

That hurt and more than just a little. "Alright Jaune," she said quietly. "If that's what you want." She turned and walked, head down, to the access door and back into the building.

_"That little shit!"_ Ichigo raged.

"I-it's okay Ichigo," she whispered.

_"No, it isn't," _he growled. _"He doesn't get to do that to you. You deserve better."_

"Please, just let it go." There was no response. "Please Ichigo?"

He sighed heavily. _"Alright. The last thing I want to do is make things worse. If you want to talk about it later you know I'll listen."_

"I know, and thank you. I just need a little time to pull myself together."

_"Whatever you need, whenever you need it," _he responded gently._ "I'll even go quiet for a while and stay out of your way if that will help."_

"Please don't," her voice slightly raised and pleading. "When you do that it feels like you're not there anymore."

He didn't know that and he didn't know if that should even be possible. _"Okay, I won't. Don't worry Pyrrha, I'm always with you and I always will be."_

He response was almost inaudible. "Thank you."

* * *

Jaune turned and looked back out at the view before him again...just in time to see Cardin climbing up over the edge of the roof.

"Jauney!" he called in a sickeningly sweet fashion. "I couldn't help but overhear...since my dorm room is right below us. You've got quite a secret you're holding there buddy. It would be a shame if everyone found out. If the Headmaster doesn't know I'm sure he'd be very disappointed in you, and if he does, well, can you imagine what that might do to his reputation once everyone else finds out you cheated your way in when they've all worked so hard to get here?" He clapped Jaune hard on the shoulder. "And that partner of yours," he added with obvious distaste in his voice. "She's pretty famous you know, so what do you think that would do for her reputation when it comes out that she's hiding your dirty little secret."

Jaune was in full panic mode now. "Cardin please, you can't tell anyone!"

"Jaune, Jaune, Jaune, don't worry." His tone was oily and it made Jaune feel sick. "I'll keep your little secret...in exchange for a few favours here and there. We're going to be best buds now, you and I."

The feeling of dread hit Jaune like a truck. He was well and truly screwed.

* * *

And so was the heavy bag in the gym later that evening as Pyrrha gave it the beating of its nonexistent life. Much to her shame after leaving the rooftop she had taken great pains to avoid the rest of her team and her other friends as she retrieved some workout clothes from the dorm room, then went for a late dinner. She didn't have much of an appetite and spent a great deal of time just picking away at her plate until she managed to eat half and she only did that because she knew she had to eat something.

Going to the gym she donned a pair of form fitting black shorts and a red sports halter top, taped up her hands and feet, and began beating the daylights out of the heavy bag. She had been neglecting her unarmed combat training lately and this was a good opportunity to get some work in and work off a few things. There were a few others in the room at first as she pounded the bag with fists and feet, the heavy thumps reverberating throughout the room, but they didn't stay long.

She wasn't pounding the bag in anger, okay maybe she was a little bit angry but it was the lowest percentage of the things she was feeling. She was frustrated. She had hoped that as she observed him Jaune would show at least a reasonable work ethic but it never really materialized. She had hoped that her subtle poking and prodding along the way would spur him along but it hadn't. His lack of forethought in many things but especially in cheating his way in and not considering the ramifications that it could have for both himself and those around him. His willingness to give up after all of that and then when he crawled out of that hole, his unwillingness to accept her help.

She was also hurt. She had seen too many friends distance themselves from her already and Jaune telling her he didn't want her help made a lot of old pain come back for an unwanted visit. She had hoped that things would be different here. The friends that she had made here, with the exception of Weiss, either hadn't known who she was and what her reputation was, or they simply hadn't cared, not being enamoured with someone's fame.

She had been so grateful for that. She wanted them to see her as Pyrrha Nikos, student of Beacon and treat her accordingly, not see her as Pyrrha Nikos, honours student of Sanctum, four time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament, and celebrity product endorser. She just wanted to be seen as their friend and not an icon to be admired from afar. If her talents could help them she would freely give her help just as she hoped they would help her if she needed it. She just wanted to live a normal life where she wasn't chained to her accomplishments and past loneliness. She was so afraid that this incident was just the first and that she'd end up alone again.

But Jaune, her friend, her _partner_, didn't want her help. Perhaps it wasn't as big of a deal as she was making it. Perhaps it was just a matter of this one particular issue and nothing more, as big of an issue as it was, but she still felt like she had been rejected and it hurt. Maybe if she had spoken up and tried to do something a lot earlier Jaune wouldn't have reached this point. Maybe if she had pressed him more to come to the gym and gotten Ren and Nora involved this situation would have evolved differently.

Maybe she should have pushed for them to study together more often as a group and tried to direct it a bit since she was way ahead on the course material. Jaune may be the team leader but that doesn't mean that others in the group couldn't take an active role in the betterment of the group and she was sure that he could have been coaxed into better study habits.

Maybe she should have coached him on his fighting, How hard would it have been to take him aside and give him a pointer or two on how to at least better defend himself, especially against Cardin who he seemed to end up facing a lot of the time in combat class. She could have eased him into it, getting him used to the tutelage and before long he may have accepted it as part of their routine, especially when he saw improved results in his bouts.

Maybe this was all her fault. Yeah, Jaune had cheated his way in and was trying, poorly, to fake it and make it. Maybe by not being more proactive and wasting so much time and opportunity she had set the conditions for what happened, making his angst and his rejection of her help an inevitable result.

None of this was fair to the team as a whole. Herself and Ren and Nora had worked hard to attain the skills they had and were working hard here at Beacon. She had seen a problem and instead of tackling it right away she had let it linger and fester like an open wound and the situation had only gotten worse. She felt so stupid. By not acting sooner or correctly she was wasting all of their hard work. It would be harder now and take longer to bring Jaune up to speed and that would put the team as a whole further behind their peers.

She let her emotions loose and began attacking the bag with unbridled ferocity. Precise and measured blows became wild and unfocused, a primal and brutal assault as she removed the restraints and just let everything loose, physically and emotionally. She screamed herself hoarse and sweat poured off of her body as blow after blow hammered into the bag. A badly landed left and a searing pain in her wrist sent her to her knees, cradling the wounded joint. Not broken, but she'd had enough sprains to know this was a significant one.

She fell back onto her butt as she tried to regain her breath and reign in her emotions, while concentrating her Aura to the damaged wrist. She was shaking and couldn't prevent the tears from falling anymore.

_"You can't blame yourself for his actions Pyrrha,"_ Ichigo said softly.

"If I had done things differently it could have made all the difference," she countered shakily.

_"Or it could have made no difference at all. There's no way to know and what's done is done. Every decision he's made is his own and he has to live with the consequences of them. You are not responsible for what he does."_

"I just wanted to help," she said sadly.

_"I know, and if I could I'd go and kick his ass for turning down that help and hurting you."_

"My hero," she said, managing a slight, tear stained smile.

_"Hey, it's kind of a thing for me, it's what I do."_

That actually got a small chuckle out of her and the next thing she knew she was standing before him on the dock in their inner world. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

"You did what friends do Pyrrha," he began. "You offered to help him and if he's got anything going on upstairs at all, sooner rather than later he's going to realize what he did and he's going to realize that he really does need that help. And if he doesn't apologize _profusely_ and beg for forgiveness, I _will _find a way to go outside and beat his ass until he does."

"That would hardly be a fair fight," she said, wiping her eyes. "And I know you aren't a bully."

"Yeah, you've got me there." He surprised her by pulling her into a gentle hug that didn't take her too long to return. "Just don't go trying to carry the burden for everything and everybody yourself. I tried to do that and it really doesn't work. Let everyone carry their own weight and be there to help them if they need it, and let them do the same for you. Don't blame yourself for things you have no control over."

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "When he said he didn't want my help I panicked and all I could think of was that he didn't want to be my friend anymore and I've lost too many of those already."

"And blamed yourself when it was never your fault," he added. "You have no reason to be sorry. I know how important friends are to you so it's not a surprise you would be upset by what he said."

She gave him a squeeze before stepping back. "What would I do without you Berry?"

He shrugged. "Aren't you glad you don't have to find out?" He smirked. "Now, as much as I'm digging the glistening, sweat soaked athlete look, you need to go have a shower. You stink."

She gave him a look then pushed him off the dock and into the lake. "Oops, I slipped," she said with a grin. "I must have slipped on all that sweat."

She was giggling as she left, her mood lighter and he laughed himself as he climbed back onto the dock. Mission accomplished.

She returned later after going to bed and they wound up on the couch again. Once again, she fell asleep against his shoulder only this time she had also latched onto him like he was a teddy bear. He discovered that he didn't mind at all.

* * *

Every night for the next week and a half was spent asleep with Ichigo on his couch. Mostly because Jaune had managed to get himself in even more difficulty and her growing agitation at his foolishness was affecting her sleep. Going to the inner world calmed her down and she was able to get some much needed and desired rest.

Jaune had started hanging out with Cardin as if they were best buddies and seemingly was at his beck and call, which told her that Cardin must have discovered his secret. No other explanation made sense for the bullied to start hanging with the one who was bullying them. They certainly hadn't suddenly made up and become friends. On a hunch she checked the dorm roster and sure enough Team CRDL's room was right below where they had been talking on the roof.

He was hardly around, wasn't taking part in any activities with the rest of his team and kept coming back to the dorm late and exhausted. He never attempted to explain himself, just offering what she knew to be lame excuses if anyone asked what he was doing. She finally had to tell Ren and Nora most of the tale, leaving out his secret, telling them that what he was hiding was something he had tell them himself. He owed them that.

Today, the first year teams were on a field trip to the forest of Forever Fall. The crimson red of the leaves on every tree made the forest look like it was stuck in perpetual autumn. Even the grass on the forest floor was red. The students were here, led by Professor Goodwitch, to collect jars of sap from the trees for Professor Peach. Jaune had ended up with Team CRDL and was a carrying all of their jars for the task. With a hangdog look towards her he let Cardin and his goon squad lead him off. She could only shake her head in exasperation.

_"I think he needs another intervention," _Ichigo said. _"And Cardin needs his legs broken._"

_"You may be right," _she agreed. _"On both counts."_

They spread out into the forest to get their samples, Cardin's team and Jaune quickly disappearing up and over a small ridge to the left. Team RWBY was several yards away to her right as she went with the remainder of her team. Choosing a tree she took her sample and set it aside and kept an eye out for Grimm while Ren and Nora got theirs. They had been warned that there may well be Grimm around and they should be alert for any unwanted guests.

Ren filled a jar, which he handed to Nora and took another empty one from her to get his. Pyrrha heard a slurping sound and turned to see the ginger guzzling down the last drop of sap from the jar. Ren looked at her and just sighed. She was trying to look innocent but it was hard when her lips were covered in sap and there was a dribble of it running down her chin.

_"Should have seen that coming," _Ichigo quipped._ "Never a dull moment with Nora around."_

"Nora," she said with a slightly exasperated sigh.

"I couldn't help it," the excitable girl gushed. "It smelled so good and it tasted even better."

Uncommonly curious, Pyrrha swiped her finger through the red dribble on Nora chin. She gave it a sniff and had to admit that it did smell rather good. Sticking the finger in her mouth she found that Nora was right, it tasted pretty good.

"Hmm, you're right."

_"That was kind of hot," _Ichigo teased. _"I wonder, what does sap flavoured Nora taste like?"_

_"Ichigo!" s_he screeched mentally._ "You perv!"_

Nora dipped her finger in some more sap and booped her on the nose. "Boy, you must have _really_ liked it for your face to go that red."

What was this, tease Pyrrha day?

_"If she licks it off I'm going to laugh so hard," _he cracked._ "Now I wonder what a sap covered, red headed shower perv tastes like."_

Her face went as red as the foliage and it was a wonder that she didn't spontaneously combust. _"Ichigo! I'm going to...to...I don't know but I'm going to do something to get back at you!"_

He chuckled. _"Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."_

Any response she might make was interrupted by yelling and the sound of people crashing through the forest. Cardin's team, minus Cardin and Jaune, were running as fast as they could and yelling about an Ursa. Ruby took charge and sent Yang and Blake to go find Professor Goodwitch and she sent Ren and Nora to go with them in case they should encounter more Grimm. She joined Weiss and Ruby as they charged up the small ridge to see what was going on.

_"Some aspiring Huntsmen,"_ Ichigo complained. _"They abandon their team leader and another student to face the Grimm alone. Cowards, just like most bullies."_

When they got to the top of the ridge they came into a small clearing and saw Cardin lying on the ground and looking like he was going to shit himself, while Jaune stood facing a very large Ursa. Weiss was going to intervene but she stopped her.

"Just wait." she said. She had seen Jaune perform better with his weapons against the Death Stalker than he did in combat class or in what little practice he had engaged in. She wanted to see how he handled this.

The Ursa lunged as he charged. Like usual, he wasn't carrying his shield high enough so she used her Semblance to raise it so he wouldn't lose his head. She was actually impressed with the level, powerful stroke he made with his sword which cleanly separated the Ursa's head from its body.

"Uhh...what?" Ruby questioned.

"How did you...?" Weiss chimed in.

"You have your glyphs and Ruby has her speed," she explained. "My Semblance is Polarity."

"Whoa, you can control poles," Ruby deduced. It was all she could do not to laugh at the adorkable one.

"No you dunce," Weiss corrected. "It means she has control over magnetism."

"Magnets are cool too," Ruby whispered.

"Let's go," she suggested as she began to turn away.

"Were are you going?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, we gotta tell them what happened." Ruby added.

"Why don't we just keep that a secret," she suggested. They didn't go too far before she spoke again. "Why don't you two go ahead, I'll wait here for Jaune. I'm sure he and Cardin might have some unfinished business after this."

"You sure you don't want us to stay?" Ruby asked, concerned for her friends.

"It's fine," Pyrrha answered. "If anything happens I'll be here to stop it. We won't be long."

They continued on and she went back up to the edge of the clearing, concealing herself behind a large tree. Even if Jaune didn't still have business with Cardin, she did. She had seen the bruises on Jaune and she wanted to know what had happened up here before the Ursa showed up.

"Don't _ever_ mess with my team...my friends..._ever_ again," Jaune said threateningly, staring Cardin in the eye. "Got it?"

Cardin didn't speak but the look on his face spoke volumes. He actually looked intimidated and maybe even a little bit apologetic. Jaune, head held high and a look of pride on his face, left the clearing and headed back down the ridge...walking right past the tree she was concealed behind and never knowing the difference. By the time she left that concealment Cardin had retrieved his mace and was walking over to the edge of the ridge where five intact jars of sap lay, along with one broken one, which told her why Cardin was covered in sap. There was also a cardboard box that as she stalked quietly up behind him, she could hear a distinct and angry buzzing coming from.

"What happened up here Winchester?" she demanded in a no nonsense stone of voice. Cardin nearly jumped out of his skin. As it was he tripped and ended up on his butt again.

"Nikos! What the hell...?" he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

Close enough now, she could see the words 'Rapier Wasps' written on the side of the box. She was starting to get a general picture in her head of what had gone on, but she wanted to hear it. Transforming Milo into javelin form, she pointed it at the box.

"Tell me what you were up to or I'll let them out," she threatened. "And since you're covered in sap they're just going to _love_ you."

"Alright alright! Just don't let them out!" he begged. "I heard you and Jaune on the roof that night, when he said he faked his way into Beacon so I started blackmailing him...to do my homework and class assignments and stuff."

"And?" she asked, tapping the box with Milo and further agitating the contents.

"And I wanted to get back at you. I had Jaune collect a bunch of Rapiers and after he gathered our sap I was going to have him nail you with a jar and then we'd let the wasps loose."

_"Break his damn legs!" _Ichigo snarled. _"Break them then let the wasps out!"_

The fiery, absolutely _pissed_ look on her face made him want to find a rock to hide under. "Let me guess, Jaune found his backbone and said no, hitting you with the sap instead. Was that when you and your team decided to beat him up? Don't try and deny it, I saw the bruises."

"Uh...y-yeah." he admitted.

She leaned forward, looking him dead in the eye. Anyone else, and under different circumstances, would have been silently cheering at the spectacular view down her corset but Cardin was too afraid for his life right now and his eyes couldn't escape hers if he tried. There was no chance she was going to feel bad later on this time about what she was doing. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt and not just her. Cardin had gone way too far this time.

"I heard what Jaune said to you," she said with deadly calm. "No matter what he might do to you if you mess with any of us again, know that it will be _nothing_ compared to what I can do to you, and _will_ do to you because you have exhausted my patience."

With that, she turned and walked away, back to join her friends for the ride home.

* * *

Later that evening, on the same rooftop where the trouble had started, she found Jaune deep in thought as he stared up at the darkening sky.

"Where's your new best friend?" she quipped with just enough sarcasm to jab him. "I thought you'd be hanging out after your adventure in the woods."

He turned towards her, a very guilty look on his face. Which was good because he deserved to feel that way, at least for a little bit. "I'm sorry Pyrrha," he apologized. "You just wanted to help me and I acted like a jerk. I had all this macho crap in my head about doing it myself and...I don't even know where to start."

"All true," she said, making him wince. "And with that pride now out of the way you realize that becoming a Huntsman isn't something that's going to happen just because you want to be a hero."

"Yeah," he admitted sheepishly. "Look, I know I don't deserve it after what I've done, but does your offer still stand? Would you be willing to help me? To train me?"

"I won't go easy on you, you know," she said. "Fitness training, weapons training, class work. It's going to take dedication and a lot of hard work."

"I know," he answered, although she wasn't sure if he was truly aware of just how much work was really ahead of him. "But this is what I want. I _want_ to be a Huntsman and I'll do whatever I have to do to get there. The right way this time."

"Then I have one condition outside of the commitment to work hard that you have to meet or else I won't help you," she said firmly.

"What is it?" he asked, vowing internally that no matter what it was he would do it.

"You will explain yourself to Ren and Nora," she answered. "You will tell them about faking your way in and you will ask them to forgive you. If you're going to lead this team then you have to be honest with them about what you've done. If you are and they forgive you then I will train you. We all will. As a team we will need to train and work together if we're going to accomplish our goals."

"Deal," he said, sticking out his hand. Instead of shaking it she handed him a mid sized utility bag that she had been carrying. "What's this?" he asked, puzzled.

"Your first training assignment," she smirked. "Ren's making pancakes for supper and that's the syrup. I've been safeguarding it from Nora otherwise she'll devour it before we're ready to eat."

He blanched. "I think I'd rather face another Ursa, it might not be as dangerous as getting between Nora and anything sweet, especially if it's pancake syrup."

"Well I did say that I wouldn't be taking it easy on you," she reminded him. "Let's go," she beckoned, gesturing to the door, letting him go through first. _"As for you Strawberry..."_

_"Yes?"_ he answered, mirth evident in his voice.

_"Don't think I've forgotten about you."_

_"I'd be hurt if you did."_

_"Someway, somehow I will get you. I don't care if I have to chase you around all night just to land a good hit. I'll find a way."_

He laughed._ "Don't threaten me with a good time Red."_

Later that night, what she did was not something he was expecting. As he stood at the end of the dock with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face, she marched right up to him down the length of the dock, stopped and stared him in the eye, her expression as neutral as he had ever seen it. In a sudden flurry she grabbed him by the head and pulled him forward, mashing her lips into his.

Now _that _was certainly unexpected.

A moment later she was gone and he may or may not have heard an 'eep' in there as she went. His mind was too occupied with processing what had just happened. This time she hadn't needed to give him a push, he fell off the dock on his own and when he resurfaced he was laughing like an idiot. And smiling like one too.

* * *

_**AN:**_ I spent four hours sitting and staring at the screen trying to come up with what she might do to try and get him back. Probably didn't help that I wasn't feeling well. Finally the idea came to me to have her do something to surprise and shock the heck out of him rather than try and get back at him somehow and that led to the last couple of paragraphs.

*shrugs* I figured, why the hell not and went with it. Besides, I was getting tired of staring at the screen like a fricking zombie.

So, hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you leave a review. (Some with a little detail would be nice but I'll take what I can get)

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.


	4. Progress, Within and Without

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

Later than I expected with this, I've been feeling just enough under the weather that it messed up my creative mind. As it was, I've spent the last two days doing major surgery on what I had managed to write to make something presentable out of it. So, if this chapter is a little creaky that would be why. Still not feeling as good as I would like to be.

Hopefully I was successful in the end. Enjoy.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 4: Progress, Without and Within**_

Sleep was seemingly an impossibility and it was a wonder that the scorching heat of a near full body blush hadn't set her bed on fire. _"Why did I do that?!"_ was on a screaming, repeating loop in her head and she was having a heck of a time getting it to stop so that she could engage in something that resembled rational thought once again.

During dinner Jaune had made his confession and told his story. Ren and Nora took it fairly well though at first they seemed genuinely hurt by his actions. They had echoed her sentiments that what he had done had put all of them in danger without them even knowing it. When they saw how genuinely remorseful he was about it and how committed he seemed to be to wanting to become a Huntsman, they agreed to give him a chance. It would take a little bit of work to regain the trust he had bent if not broken and they had a lot of ground to cover to make up for what he currently lacked, but they were all in for trying so long as he was.

Together they worked out and fine tuned a training schedule, working from what she had already roughly drawn up, as well as a schedule for getting him up to speed on his class work. Throughout it however, she remained at least partially distracted as she wracked her brain for a suitable way to get back at Ichigo.

Taking him on in a spar, be it armed or unarmed wasn't going to work. She had seldom landed a significant blow against him and in this instance he would make that even harder to accomplish just to mess with her. Unless she caught him by surprise, trying to dump him in the lake was not an easy task either and that was usually just for fun and somehow it didn't seem like a suitable vehicle for revenge.

She had to admit, when it came down to it revenge and getting someone back for something wasn't really her forte. Sure, she had made her point with Cardin but that was a lot more serious than what she was looking at here. This was just payback for a little teasing, teasing that ever increasingly seemed to have her form some rather risque pictures in her head and that might have been the larger part of her embarrassment these days.

Darn Perv-Berry was a bad influence on her. It had to be him...it couldn't be her own imagination beginning to work in ways it never had before...right?

Even as she marched up to him on the dock she still hadn't had a single clue of what she was going to do. Not even when she was staring him right in the eye. Then all of a sudden...wham...and she was literally mashing her lips against his. As kisses went, especially first kisses, it was rather awkward and maybe even a little bruising and she wasn't entirely sure which one of them was more shocked by it.

_'Oh my...!'_ She had given Ichigo her first kiss! But did that actually count? He was her soul so he was essentially her...so she had kissed herself?

She groaned. Of all the things to do, of all the things she could have done...why did she do that?

Since finally being able to hear him her life had taken a turn for the better. A slow turn at first but once she was finally able to stand up for herself and began to take charge of her life things took off from there. Thanks to Ichigo she had been discovering who she was and building a new Pyrrha Nikos, one who was more independent, more outgoing, more confident, and much happier than the old one had been. He had chased away her loneliness and allowed her to eventually make new friends, friends who it looked like weren't going to leave her like so many others had before.

If she hadn't finally been able to hear his voice that horribly lonely evening atop the wall in Argus, she didn't know where she would be or how she would be handling things right now. She didn't know _who_ she would be and that scared her.

She had always worried in her relationships with others that she was the catalyst that made them drift away from her, that she had been doing something that pushed them away. Wasn't that exactly what she had done now with Ichigo? Yes, he was her soul but he had his own memories and personality and while they may be irrevocably connected that didn't mean that the relationship they had couldn't fall apart or be soured.

Was this how damaged her loneliness had made her? As out of the blue as the act was there had to be some underlying reason why she would do it, right? She certainly was not so forward that she would just kiss someone out of the blue like that, not even someone who was as important and significant to her as Ichigo was. He was her soul for crying out loud. Was she some kind of ultimate narcissist whose only true solace for all of that past loneliness was herself?

She wanted to scream and pull her hair out and disappear into a black hole. She had screwed up the best thing in her life. Fighting other people, fighting Grimm, that was almost easy. Interacting with other people was so much harder and apparently it didn't matter if one of them was her own soul. Being socially awkward was one thing, being totally inept was something else altogether. Alienating your own soul...well that had to be an all time accomplishment right there.

_"You know," _Ichigo began. _"As good as you are at fighting others, you might be even better at beating yourself up. I think the ref needs to step in and call this fight. You're a mess."_

_"Ichigo!" _

_"Easy," _he said gently, trying to quell the surge of panic. _"Calm down Red and take a few deep breaths, you're about to hyperventilate."_

It took a few minutes to get her breathing evened out but her heart was still hammering in her chest and she was on the verge of tears. _"I'm sorry Ichigo. I-I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking...I don't know what I was doing. I-I just wanted to get back at you a little and I had no idea and I..."_

_"Pyrrha!"_ he said just sharply enough to stop the meltdown. _"Give yourself a break okay?"_

_"I-I just..." _Tears were leaking from her eyes now._ "I don't want to mess things up between us or make them weird. I don't want to lose the relationship we have. I don't want you to be angry with me."_

_"I got kissed by a beautiful girl, how could that possibly make me angry?_" he asked with some mirth. _"Besides, I don't think I could ever be angry with you even if I tried. You certainly did catch me by surprise though, I fell in the lake as you left."_

_"You really aren't upset with me?" _she asked hopefully.

_"Not in the least," _he answered softly. _"I'm not angry or upset and you haven't messed anything up or made it weird and you haven't lost anything. You don't have to worry about any of that Pyrrha, we're good and we always will be. I promise. When you're calmer and ready to talk about it more we will."_

A lot of the tension, most of it actually, seemed to rush right out of her and along with it most of the energy she had left. She closed her eyes and swiped away the tears._"Thank you Ichigo...and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run off like that. I panicked and...well, I'm sorry."_

_"Geez, you sure apologize a lot," _he said mirthfully. _"I understand so it's fine. Now why don't you relax and try to get some sleep, you have a knucklehead to start training in the morning. Just...next time let a guy have a chance to return the gesture alright?"_

...Next time? He wanted to return the gesture? She body flushed all over again. It was a wonder that the others didn't wake up and wonder where the red glow was coming from.

_"How am I supposed to relax now? Ichigo? Stop laughing at me Berryhead!"_

* * *

Even with as little sleep as she ended up getting, she was probably more wide awake than Jaune was when they all got up and headed to the gym. Since it was a Saturday morning they could take their time and not have to worry about getting done in time to get to class. They hit the locker room and changed into their workout gear, she in her now usual sports halter and form fitting shorts and the rest in shorts and t-shirts. They started with a stretching routine, explaining to Jaune the importance of doing so. Ren even offered to teach them all a method that he often used that involved going through slow, measured martial arts moves.

Ichigo said there was a discipline from his time that was pretty close to what Ren described that was called Tai Chi. It would be good for not just stretching but also general fitness and flexibility as well as being a good stress reliever. In some ways it was almost like a physically active form of meditation, which was something else that Ren practised and was willing to teach them if they wished.

First up was some cardio and endurance work. She usually alternated between a treadmill and an elliptical machine and occasionally a stationary bike. This morning she took the elliptical. Ren and Nora took treadmills while Jaune got on a stationary bike. If he thought it might be a little easier for him since he would be sitting down, he was going to get a surprise.

They had worked out the previous day what type of training they needed to concentrate on. They would all need a well rounded routine to work on every aspect of their fitness but there were areas where they all, and especially her three team mates needed to work on a little more. No matter what kind of weapon you wielded it was advisable to have a strong core. Wielding weapons like swords and shields or like Nora's hammer, you needed overall strength but more so in the upper body to be able to keep the weapons up and ready and you needed leg strength for a solid base. A fighter like Ren would rely more on flexibility and agility.

All of their styles, anybody's style, required endurance and that was one of the biggest areas they were lacking. Ren admitted that he was often winded and quick to run down, though you would think that with trying to keep up with Nora that wouldn't be a problem. Nora was strong and worked on it regularly, but when her endurance reached its limit she crashed hard and there wasn't much in the way of a slow down first. Jaune needed a lot of work in all areas. He wasn't carrying a lot of extra weight but he wasn't what you would call in shape either. She had seen first hand in combat class his lack of strength and how quickly he reached the end of his endurance. Frankly, his fitness level wasn't even up to the level of the average first year student who had been to combat school.

It didn't take all that long for Ren, Nora, and Jaune to work up a sweat or to start and labour a bit. Of the three Nora was probably in the best overall shape but she wasn't used to doing a lot that required endurance. As for herself she had a good sweat going but wasn't winded. The faster cycles of the machine with more resistance would get her breathing up but she recovered easily on the less strenuous ones.

The next phase was some weight training and everyone chose a level they were comfortable with. They gave Jaune something he could easily handle since she didn't want him to end up sore and unable to move during the rest of the day. Ren's fighting style didn't require as much muscle as the rest of them so he wouldn't have to build up as much muscle mass as the rest of them needed. None of them should overdo it though because too much muscle could affect their agility, flexibility, and speed.

Next would be agility drills and maybe some time at the various punching bags, but first it was time for a break. She didn't need it but it was clear that the others could use one.

"Is this what you do every morning?" Jaune asked as he sat on a bench and caught his breath, taking one of the water bottles that she was handing out.

"I alternate each day," she answered. "I usually have two hours to work with. One day I will do all cardio and use all of the different machines. The next day I'll start with cardio to work up a sweat and then I'll do a variety of free weight exercises. The third day it will be cardio, agility, and punching bags. Day four it's all cardio again. It's a three day cycle. If there is something specific I feel the need to work on I'll do that. Sometimes I might even have a light workout in the evening."

"Do you ever miss a day?" he choked out. He wasn't the only one that had a disbelieving look on their face.

_"I think you've stunned them Red,"_ Ichigo said.

"I try not to," she answered. "If I start missing days it becomes too easy to make it a habit. I do sleep in a little later on the weekends though."

"It's no wonder you look like that then!" Nora pronounced.

"Um...look like what?" she asked, nervously warily.

_"I think the Princess of Pancakes is trying to compliment you,"_ Ichigo said.

"I think she meant that you are in remarkable physical shape for someone of our age group," Ren said in confirmation.

"Yeah!" Nora agreed. "You look like one of those models from the fitness magazines!"

She certainly didn't have the cut muscle definition that was seen in some of those publications, and she didn't want that, but she definitely was tightly toned with very little body fat. One of her agent's PR people thought she should pose for one of those magazines once she turned eighteen. It was an idea she had never been comfortable with. She didn't want to be posing half naked in a magazine for people to gawk at. Luckily she wouldn't have anybody pushing to get her to do that now.

_"I'd buy one,"_ Ichigo snickered. "_Maybe two."_

_"S-shut up!"_

"How long have you been working out like this?" Jaune asked, still clearly gobsmacked by it.

_"He had better get used to it because he's going to become very familiar with this routine," _Ichigo cracked._ "Imagine if he knew you did extra combat training in here with me. He'd die of exhaustion just thinking about it."_

"Ever since I was in combat school," she answered. "Even before that as a kid I used to run a lot and go swimming whenever I could. I've always liked the way I felt after a good workout."

"Wow," he said in awe and some trepidation. "How in the heck am I going to keep up with you then. I've never worked out very much."

"I don't expect you to keep up with me Jaune," she answered. "You just start out at a pace you can handle and increase it as you go."

"If you try to do too much you'll just hurt yourself," Nora chimed in. "I learned that the hard way. Tried lifting too much, too many times, and tore some muscles. It really hurt."

"The effort will bring results even if you don't see it right away," Ren added.

"Even if you have a natural propensity for something, whether it's in the gym, the combat arena, or the classroom, sweat and hard work will always make you better." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Natural talent will only take you so far. Hard work takes care of the rest."

That seemed to lift his resolve. "Then I guess I have a lot of work to do," he said firmly.

That's what she wanted to hear. "Then shall we get back at it?"

"You know you really could be in one of those magazines," Nora said as they walked across the gym to the next station. She had her hands clasped behind her head and was doing sort of a half high step. "You are pretty ripped you know."

She blushed a little at the compliment. "I don't think that's something I'd really want to do."

"I know!" Nora exclaimed as she as spun around and started walking backwards. "There could be a Girls of Beacon issue! We could get Team RWBY involved and we'll all work out and get ripped like you and we can pose for the magazine! It'd be a best seller!"

_"Now that would be interesting," _Ichigo mused as Nora continued to babble._ "Jaune thinks so too by the looks of it, if the way he suddenly went stiff and turned red is any indication. Probably imagining his Snow Angel glistening with sweat. Ha, I think even Ren is envisioning a certain hammer wielder."_

_"I'm glad she can't hear you,"_ Pyrrha groaned. _"You'd only encourage her and Nora's imagination doesn't need any help."_

_"I know!" _he exclaimed, plowing ahead. _"They could dress Ruby up like you are now and you could pose back to back, the Beacon prodigies of Big Red and Little Red. It'd be great!"_

_"I think she'd be even more uncomfortable with the idea than I am," _she countered. _"The poor girl would be petrified."_

_"It could always be worse, Nora could be talking about a nudie magazine instead."_

She nearly walked face first into a heavy bag.

* * *

After they finished at the gym they cleaned up and went for breakfast, then to the library to try and get a handle on what classes Jaune needed the most help with and how they could start getting him up to speed in the quickest and most effective way possible. Most of his grades would improve simply by paying closer attention and being a bit more diligent with his homework, but by far his two worst classes were history and Grimm Studies.

History, mostly because that was the class he tended to sleep in the most and he didn't really seem to understand or appreciate the value of studying events that had already happened. Grimm studies because Professor Port seemed to concentrate more on his storytelling than anything else.

Perhaps he expected the students to already have the fundamental knowledge of the Grimm from their combat school, knowledge which Jaune didn't have. In Port's stories you might mine out a nugget or two about a Grimm's behaviour or a useful bit about how he had killed it, but by far you learned more from the text books and prescribed reading materials and the daily homework assignment. For all intents and purposes, it might as well have been a self taught class.

Getting him up to speed on the Grimm was a must and shouldn't be hard to achieve. It was a matter of making sure he read the material and did the assignments and frankly it wasn't a terribly complicated subject. You learned about the known types of Grimm, the types of environments they were most likely to be found in, the most relevant types of Grimm in any given geographic area, and their known vulnerabilities which made them easier to kill. To mirror that you also learned about how they attacked and what made them the most effective.

As for history, Jaune tended to see it the way a lot of people who didn't fare well with the subject did, as a collection of boring dates and the places where a bunch of stuff happened. Information that they had no use for. They soon disabused him of that notion. Learning about what others did in the past and how they did it could help make sure you didn't repeat the same mistakes. Knowing the history of an area and the people that lived there could be a great help in dealing with those people and living and working in that area. In learning of past battles you learned about tactics and strategies, how they worked or how they failed based on the terrain and the nature of the enemy. Knowing why battles were fought and how conflicts erupted in the first place taught valuable lessons.

They decided that the best way to go about it would be to take whatever the current focus was in Dr. Oobleck's class and not just merely study the text book, but to have a discussion and debate among themselves about it. Have a discussion about why it happened, how it happened, and how it could have been avoided in the first place. Examine the different aspects of it and look at it from multiple sides and points of view. Studying in a discussion and debate format would get everyone more engaged and for anyone who wasn't as eager about the subject as she was, it might catch their interest a lot more.

Once they established the method, they engaged in one such discussion and much to Jaune's chagrin it was the Battle of Fort Castle during the Faunus Rights Revolution and they chose that one on purpose to give him a little tweak and help make their point. Fortunately he got the point and the discussion was a great success and he actually learned from it and was taking a real interest.

After dinner they went to one of the practice arenas and began work on his combat training. They didn't spar, but there was plenty of instruction on the importance of the proper stance and footwork. How to properly hold the sword and shield and the most basic fundamentals of defending and striking. They even gave him a demonstration of how he could fare better against his most often faced opponent in combat class, Cardin Winchester. It would also serve as his first lesson in how to analyze your opponent.

With Nora playing the role and wielding Magnhild as if it was Cardin's mace, at low speed and with stationary poses, they demonstrated some simple moves Jaune could use both to defend himself better and land some blows with both his sword and his shield. With his lack of training Jaune had never really considered ways that he could use his shield as a weapon and not just a means of defence.

All in all for the first day, things went quite well. They were able to establish the framework for a workable routine and Jaune, while slightly overwhelmed, did see the value and the need for what they were going to teach him. The best part was that he seemed more than willing to commit to it and truly work toward his goal of becoming a Huntsman.

Quite frankly, the entire experience was going to be good for their team as a whole. They would get to know each other's combat styles and work on how they could best work together. They would form a close camaraderie through their workouts and studying and they would get to know each other much better socially as well. She had already seen enough in them to know that every member of the team would go to the wall for each other, and probably through that wall too, and that bond would only get stronger.

If they worked hard enough they might even be able to challenge Team RWBY for the position of best first year team. It would be a friendly competition to be sure and once JNPR _was_ up to speed, it would be great if they could also train together with RWBY. Who said two teams couldn't work together as if they were one?

* * *

It didn't take long that night for the others to go to sleep but once again she found herself remaining wide awake, though thankfully she wasn't bordering on blind panic this time. Even with Ichigo's assurance that things were okay between them and even with their usual banter during the day, she was still feeling concerned about what she had done and found herself rehashing things again. They needed to talk about it obviously but she had no idea what to say. How did one address the fact that they had kissed their own self aware soul, that they had both liked it and wouldn't mind if it happened again?

She couldn't even begin to navigate the metaphysical, existential, and psychology facets of the situation and it would be really easy to panic over it, again, and have the mental gymnastics of it tie her up into knots that she'd never escape from.

She gave her head a shake. She really didn't need to get caught in that loop right now but the situation did bring up the question of how she regarded him. Ever since she became aware of him he had become her friend, her confidant, her advisor, and her trainer. He was her ear that would listen and her shoulder to lean on or cry on...or sleep on too. They had serious discussions and ridiculous discussions and they enjoyed companionable silence while watching the moon and the stars.

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. There had always been a part of her mind that preoccupied itself with the dynamics of her relationship with Ichigo. Having his own distinct personality and the memories of his past made him seem like an entirely separate entity and there were times where she would forget that he was her own soul. Well, maybe not so much forget as not constantly thinking of him as such.

He had been able to make his presence known to her at a point where she had desperately needed it the most. The pain of loneliness was one she wouldn't wish upon her worst enemy and he had been able to bleed that pain away from her. His company was constant but not overbearing or stifling and it wasn't long before she began to wish that he could join her in the outside world. Being able to interact with him within the inner world he had created was great, but she really wished that they could interact out in the real world too.

She became more comfortable around him every day, despite his teasing about things like what she did in the shower and numerous other reasons he found to take a good natured poke at her. So comfortable in fact that after that first defiant instance, she had no trouble getting naked in front of him and going skinny dipping in the lake. One might suggest that him seeing her naked in the outside world was no different than in the inner world but that wasn't true. Unless she never wanted to shower or change her clothes ever again there was absolutely nothing to be done about how much of her he saw in the outside world. But in the inner world what he saw was purely by her choice alone and she had chosen to let him see all of her.

Apparently she was willing to be much bolder when in the inner world than she was outside of it. She didn't _do_ spontaneous, or at least she didn't used to and it was still a big shock to her whenever she went and did something without thinking a great deal about it first. Going after Weiss on the first day at Beacon over her treatment of Ruby, beating up Cardin in the cafeteria. Although, she had spent enough time soaked in angst _after_ the fact to make up for her lack of thought beforehand.

Her first great act of spontaneity had been that first time she got naked in front of him and dove into the lake. It had been a spontaneous act of defiance against herself to spur herself on to being less closed off and reserved, a symbolic _'breaking of the chains'_ that had kept her from discovering a world where she wasn't tied down by the whims, expectations, and demands of others.

The act had been filled with nervousness and exhilaration, and not just because of the sudden feeling of freedom from her emotional and psychological restraints and the odd thrill of diving into the lake sans bathing suit. It was also because _he_ had borne witness to it. To see her taking her freedom for herself and for seeing her naked in a way that seemed much more personal even than how he had seen her in such a state over the course of the last seventeen years. Even more so than the things he teased her for doing when naked...darn Perv-Berry!

This had been live and in person as it were, not witnessed essentially through her own eyes. It had been something of much greater significance than the mere physical aspect. It was him seeing her at her core.

He got to see her that way as if they were separate beings and while she didn't see it at the time, she had come to realize that deep down she had wanted him to see her that way. Separate and distinct, to see not just who she was but who she was becoming. Was that part of what had prompted her to kiss him?

There was something about it that had been and still was both liberating and flavoured with a bit of the thrill of something naughty, which she did not find unappealing even though it went totally against her upbringing. It helped that he didn't leer or stare and make her uncomfortable or make any unwanted advances. Even his teasing which almost always left her red faced was never malicious or off putting. Cast aside the reality that he was her soul and she couldn't help but feel that they just fit together perfectly.

Was it a product of him eradicating and saving her from her loneliness? Was she overstepping the bounds of gratitude for him relieving her of that pain? Had she made herself emotionally dependent upon him or were the things she was feeling true and genuine? He was her soul, she shouldn't feel the way she did about him but it was undeniable that she did. She was attracted. She loved to spend time with him in the inner world, she loved being able to have conversations with him when she wasn't. She loved training with him or even just goofing around with him.

She was even fond of his teasing despite it leaving her feeling embarrassed a lot of the time and occasionally leaving her mind to wander over things she otherwise wouldn't think about. Like this morning. His comment about _"It could always be worse, Nora could be talking about a nudie magazine instead.", _had been followed up later by him telling her about a sports magazine from his time that used to do an annual 'body issue' where high level athletes posed naked, their naughty bits hidden by their pose or by something they were holding. The objective was to showcase the physiques they had built to allow them to excel at their given sport.

To make matters worse he began wondering in the back of her mind, as if talking to himself, what their other friends would look like in everything from fitness to sport to swimsuit to nudie magazines. Individually or all of them posing together. Somehow she ended up imagining that herself and she knew he wasn't projecting images to her. It was all she could do to keep the others from noticing her getting distracted...and somewhat flustered. Stupid Berryhead, he had way too much fun seeing the images that flashed through her head and she knew she hadn't heard the last of it.

But she also knew that his antics were purposeful and had been designed to distract her from the kiss and her panicked, jumbled thoughts and stressing out over it. For the most part it had worked. It had forced her to set it aside and be able to approach it later with a more rational and less reactionary thought process and she could see things more clearly. For right or wrong, be he her soul or not, she understood now that she had fallen in love with Ichigo and that spontaneous kiss had been a true expression of the feelings that she had for him. Admitting that to herself actually felt pretty good.

She'd never been in love with someone before. As a matter of fact, she'd never had enough time to be around anyone long enough to really get to know them as anything more than just a friend, and barely even that much. She supposed that she and Ichigo had a level of understanding of one another that no one else did or could. He had been privy to every second of her life and in turn he had opened up the memories of his life to her and held nothing back, sharing everything about himself willingly.

She touched a hand to her lips. She should have stayed or at least gone back and tried to explain herself to him or even just outright apologized but she had been too shocked by her own behaviour to do anything but run. Thankfully it seemed that she hadn't offended him with either action.

As she lay there thinking about it she didn't feel like what she had done was wrong. It didn't feel like just a throwaway gesture that she had done just to shock him in her attempt to get back at him. She wouldn't do that to him or anyone else, nor would she just give herself away like that. She was realizing that she had meant it, sincerely, even with it being such an utterly spontaneous act and the truth that he was her soul seemed to be rather secondary at the moment.

With a slight smile on her face she let her consciousness sink and she reappeared in their inner world, in the sky well above the cottage. It had been such a kick when she discovered that she could do this, here she could stand and walk on the air like he did and even fly around if she chose to. It had prompted her to work on a method to do just that in the outside world with the aid of her Semblance, though she hadn't shown it to anyone yet.

Changing from her nightwear to a pair of running shoes, denim shorts, and an off white shirt with little red and orange maple leaves adorning it, she slowly drifted down to the ground. Going up the steps to the deck around the cottage and around to the front she found Ichigo in his usual t-shirt and cargo shorts, leaning back on a couch he had moved out there and looking up at the moon.

He looked over at her and smiled. "I saved you a seat," he said, gesturing to his right.

She sat but remained silent as what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it wouldn't order itself properly in her mind, despite all of her previous and repetitive, angst filled thoughts. The words wouldn't come and it was frustrating.

"I've never been in love with someone before," Ichigo began, his eyes still fixed on the moon. "I loved my Mom, I loved my sisters, I loved my friends. Hell, I even loved my crazy father. Way too far after the fact I realized that there were those who may have loved me and wanted a relationship but I was too wrapped up in keeping everyone safe to see it at the time or to even give it much thought.

Maybe it was because I lost the one person I loved the most at such a young age that I closed my heart to everyone else. Maybe I was just taking the easy way out and had convinced myself that no one was that interested so that I didn't have to deal with that and the angst that comes with it. Maybe I was just scared of it and didn't want to deal with it. Maybe all three."

He turned to her and smiled softly. "Human, Hollow, Quincy, and Shinigami. I'm made up of parts that weren't really intended to go together and I've done things that were either supposed to be impossible or at least well beyond my reach. Now, I'm someone's soul and I'm in love with that person as if I were a separate entity."

Her eyes went wide. "Ichigo..." she half whispered, half gasped.

"I love you Pyrrha."

Her bottom lip trembled and moisture gathered at the corner of her eyes. "I-I love you too Ichigo."

She moved first, her arms wrapping around him and he didn't take long to follow suit. She hadn't realized just how badly she wanted to hear someone, to hear _him_ say "I love you", and it had felt so good to say it to him herself. Deep down inside of her she felt like something new came to life, a new warmth seemed to slowly fill every part of her. She didn't know what it was but it felt good. It felt right. It felt like something that had been missing or displaced had now finally taken its rightful place. She didn't know how else to describe it.

They moved apart just enough that they could look into each other's eyes, neither seeing any doubts reflected there. Slowly their lips came together for a soft, lingering kiss. In spite of what they were to each other it didn't feel wrong or strange or even weird. Actually there was _one_ strange thing and that was a feeling they both had that pretty much said to them, '_It's about damn time!'_

"Have we been blind to what's been going on all this time?" she asked.

"Maybe," he responded. "My friends always told me I was dense."

"Since you're my soul what does that say about me?" He just smirked at her so she retaliated by gently bopping her head into his.

He chuckled. "Well, late or not we know it now. I have to say though that I never thought that feeling this way about someone would feel this good."

"I know what you mean," she agreed. "There was a time were I never thought that I would get to experience something like this. Never mind that this is about as unconventional as a relationship can be."

"That seems to be the way I roll," he laughed. "Me and normal aren't all that well acquainted."

She gave him another quick kiss before snuggling up against him to share the view of the moon. "And I'm quite alright with that."

* * *

If happiness and good feelings could be weaponized, Pyrrha would have been able to walk through the Emerald Forest the next day and eradicate every Grimm within miles of her in all directions. The smile that wouldn't leave her face had her team a little puzzled and Nora took it upon herself to try and figure out why, surmising that she must have had a _really_ good dream. She spent the day trying, many of her guesses being things that could only possibly exist in the Nora-verse, a place that only Nora herself and maybe Ren could ever hope to navigate their way through with any success.

Other suggestions where a little R-rated and left her with a few too many vivid visuals in her mind that didn't want to go away. It was a wonder that she didn't spontaneously combust. Of course, Ichigo was howling with laughter like he'd gone mad and no amount of telling the Berryhead to shut up was any help at all. With a bear hug he later apologized, still laughing of course and taking no notice of her futile gesture of beating her fists on his chest in protest and accusing him of turning her into a pervert. They both agreed that Nora indeed had a _very_ vivid imagination...and he said she must have one too considering how quickly she put a visual to the things Nora was suggesting.

She proceeded to spend the next hour chasing him all around the cottage, the training room, and around the lake.

Oddly enough it seemed like her good mood had an effect on all of her friends, kind of like how Ichigo's overflowing power used to affect his friends. While no one began showing any new or thus far unknown abilities, the upswing in mood had everyone a little more upbeat and even working a little harder without needing a push. Which was good considering that end of semester exams were fast approaching. There was one unfortunate glitch however when Team RWBY had a blow up over the reveal of Blake being a Faunus. Well, it was more like Weiss and Blake had the blow up while Ruby and Yang were both too bewildered by it to be able to do much about it. She was a little disappointed that they weren't able to do much to help their friends and she found herself even more disappointed that they had missed the action at the docks.

She blamed Ichigo for being a bad influence on her that way too.

After the exams were over they had a bit of a celebration. Jaune had worked hard and done well, passing all of his exams and attaining marks just high enough that he wouldn't need to do any remedial work. At least not coming from the teachers. As a group they would continue to work at it though they would slow down a bit during the semester break and take a little more time to relax.

Even at that she kept up something close to her normal routine and she did even more training in her inner world with Ichigo. It also meant that they got to spend a lot more time together. _Close_ time together that occasionally got a little heated but they didn't go too far. There was no hurry for that and she didn't feel ready to go that far yet anyway.

School and life in general was going well. She had made friends that she didn't have to worry would leave her and as improbable and outright strange as it was, she had someone to love and who loved her in return. She was excelling at her classes and was helping her whole team become better. She was looking forward to the next semester and it should be interesting. The Vytal Festival was fast approaching, there would be a flood of students coming in from the other academies for it and they would get to go on their first field assignment, supervised by an active Huntsman or Huntress.

She could hardly wait for what was to come.

* * *

**AN:** A little shorter than the other chapters but this is where it seemed to want to go. Not entirely sure I'm thrilled with the tail end of the chapter but quite frankly I didn't really know what else to do with it considering how I got there and what comes next. Eh, it is what it is.

Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll leave a review.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.


	5. Foes and Friends

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

It wasn't my intention to take this long getting an update out, but shortly after putting out the last chapter my mental state decided to go off the rails again. It wasn't so much a state of depression as it was a bout of unreasonable anger. During that I got a mildly critical review that I responded to.

During the ensuing trade of PM's, I realized I was dealing with a total idiot and something in my head snapped. Not so much caused by the idiotic comments, but the timing of it. I was in exactly the wrong mood and my writing unfortunately became an innocent victim of my state of mind.

During the span of the following month I very nearly gave up writing. Despite still feeling like I wanted to write and that I didn't want to abandon something that I love to do and that quite frankly is also therapeutic, I couldn't shake the notion of giving it up and just saying fuck it. Over a two day period shortly before I finally started to come back out of hole I had fallen into, I very nearly went to the file I keep my stories in, right clicked the mouse, and hit delete. I came _that_ close to destroying all of the stories I spent so much time writing and put so much into.

Fortunately I didn't and I slowly got back to normal and back to this story. Every word I wrote, even though at times it was like slow torture to get this chapter out, made me glad that I didn't just chuck it all.

So, here is Chapter 5, possibly the second to last chapter of this particular fic unless something changes as I write Chapter 6.

Enjoy, and please leave a review if you are so inclined. As always, trolls and idiots need not bother. After what I just went through I just might publicly eviscerate any who show their pointy little heads.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 5: Foes and Friends**_

"I have food in places it should never be!" Nora declared.

Pyrrha had to agree wholeheartedly, but to be fair hearing Nora complain about it was a little rich since she was one of the principle reasons that there had been a food fight in the first place. As with many things it had started out innocently enough. From their table Nora had been tossing grapes into Yang's mouth who was sitting with her team at the next table across from theirs.

Grapes turned into an apple, which was fired back at them and struck an innocent bystander, then came the shot that started the war. A cream pie went sailing but Nora's aim was off. It didn't hit Yang, but it did hit Weiss squarely in the face. Then, as they say, it was on.

The other students quickly vacated the cafeteria leaving just RWBY and JNPR behind. Nora claimed supremacy as Queen of the Castle from atop a pile of tables. Ruby declared her right of vengeance and the food began to fly. Watermelons were hurled like bombs, and at one point with a metal rod from one of the tapestry hangars, turned into a war hammer. There were boxing glove turkeys, Leek nunchaku, a swordfish rapier, a linked sausage chain whip, baguette swords and cans of soda hurled as fizzy hand grenades courtesy of her Polarity Semblance.

Just as the battle seemed to be all in JNPR's favour, with Weiss actually having been knocked out and Yang launched through the ceiling courtesy of Nora's watermelon hammer, Ruby took matters into her own hands and ended it. Using the speed of her Semblance, she rocketed through the room creating a vacuum like wake behind her that picked up every loose bit of food, drink, and utensils that lay scattered about.

As she shot past Team JNPR, they were picked up as well. They along with Ruby hit the end wall of the cafeteria, with the little Reaper speeding out of the way just as the tide of debris smashed into them as they were stuck against the wall, completely coating them.

In the aftermath they had been sent to the nearby locker rooms to clean up. If they had gone to their dorms they would have tracked and trailed food debris though the halls and into their rooms and no one wanted to end up cleaning the carpets to fix that issue. Jaune and Ren were segregated in one shower area while all of the girls were in another. Ruby wasn't currently present since she had been dispatched to the dorms to bring back some clean clothing. She managed to come out of the food fight with almost no mess on her at all. The rest of them weren't quite as lucky.

"I've got watermelon juice and seeds all over me," Yang said. She had smashed several of the large fruits away from her with her turkey boxing gloves, but that didn't keep her from getting drenched in the juice and covered in seeds.

"I smell like grape soda and I'm sticky everywhere," Blake groused. She had taken several hits from Pyrrha's soda grenades.

Yang put an arm around her partner. "At times like this we should really _stick_ together."

Blake rolled her eyes and gently pushed Yang's arm aside. "Do that and we just might. Literally."

"You're not the only one who's sticky," Weiss complained. "A lot of that whipped cream melted and ran down into my shirt. It feels disgusting."

"I guess you really got _creamed _then, eh Weiss?" Yang chuckled. Weiss gave her the stink eye.

_"Make it stop_," Ichigo groaned.

Pyrrha was in full agreement. _"If only I could."_

"There's coleslaw in my shoes!" Nora exclaimed.

"There's a soggy dinner roll on my pocket," Weiss said distastefully as she used two fingers to pull it out of her blazer pocket and drop it into the large garbage can they had purposed for their clean up.

"Got pickle slices in mine," Yang said, dropping them in the trash. She checked the other pocket. "And some olives."

"Rice," Pyrrha said, pulling a handful out of her right pocket. "And bean salad, I think," as she cleaned out the left.

Nora looked up at her. "You've got an entire buffet stuck in your hair," the ginger declared. "There's salad...with ranch dressing. And bacon bits. More rice. Half a smashed chicken nugget. Some fruit...I think it's strawberries, and," she sniffed a few times, getting closer to the left side of her head. "Maple syrup?" She started moving closer but Pyrrha raised her hand to stop her.

"Don't even think about it Nora," she warned. She didn't need the girl to try licking the syrup off of her neck and she tried to ignore Ichigo's amused snort. At least now she knew what had her hair sticking to her headpiece. She would have to wait until she was in the shower before trying to take it off or else she might lose a clump of hair with it.

"Ow," Blake said softly as she undid her bow. Apparently the sugary soda had made the hair of her cat ears stick to the material. She saw Pyrrha staring at her and lowered her eyes as if in shame.

"Oh I'm sorry Blake, I didn't mean to stare," she apologized. "I...I hadn't seen your ears before. I didn't mean to be rude."

"It's...okay, " Blake responded. "I just never know what kind of reaction to expect when someone sees them."

"I think they're cute!" Nora exclaimed.

"Nora!" Pyrrha admonished.

"Well they are."

"I second that," Yang chimed in. "Can't dispute the truth."

"Well, they are rather fetching," Pyrrha acquiesced.

_"Fetching?"_ Ichigo chuckled.

_"Hush you!"_

"I think you've all embarrassed her enough," Weiss said.

"Killjoy," Yang drawled. "Always the voice of reason. No fun at all."

"I participated in the food fight didn't I?"

"Ew gross!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she was taking off her jacket.

"What is it?" Blake asked.

"There's a big glob of...something inside my shirt and when I twisted to take my coat off it started running down my stomach and into my skirt. It's slimy and gross!"

"How did you even get that much of anything inside your shirt?" Weiss asked.

"She's missing a button," Yang answered. "Probably got popped when Ruby hit them with her food tornado and something got forced inside."

Pyrrha started unbuttoning her shirt and the problem soon became evident. Nora's nose confirmed it. "Banana pudding."

From her collar down she was covered in banana pudding. Even her ample cleavage was full of it and when she had moved the right way it had begun to leak out of her bra, leaving a trail down to the waistband of her skirt.

Yang began to snort and snicker. She tried several times to speak, most likely to spin another pun or joke of some kind. All any one could piece together was something about a money shot and a big banana.

Blake, given her sometimes risque literary pursuits was the first to get the gist of what the blond was trying to say.

"Yang!" she admonished.

"What is she on about now?" Weiss asked with a put upon sigh. Blake leaned over and whispered in her ear. Her posture went ramrod straight, her face turned red, and there may have been steam coming out of her ears. "Yang Xiao Long you are disgusting!" she roared.

Yang only laughed harder.

Nora had taken a contemplative pose, one hand supporting her elbow while the other held her chin. "Hmm, you're right Yang, it _does _kind of look like that."

It took Pyrrha a moment to process Yang's laughter garbled rantings and the meaning of which was verified by Weiss's indignant response and Nora's rather nonchalant observation. It also didn't help that it sounded like Ichigo was practically choking to death in his attempt to not laugh out loud. Her whole body turned a brilliant shade of red and her mouth opened and closed like the gasping of a landed fish. She was pretty sure her brain was short circuiting.

Right at that moment Ruby walked in carrying a laundry basket full of clean clothes for them. She stopped and regarded the curious scene before her with an adorable side tilt of her head, wondering why her sister was doubled over in hysterics. Her face pinked slightly at the sight of Pyrrha's open shirt.

"What's going on?" she asked innocently.

With a strangled shriek Pyrrha covered her chest with her arms and sprinted into the showers, picking the furthest stall away to duck into, still fully clothed, and turned the water on full blast. She couldn't even manage to yell at Ichigo for his now uncontrolled laughter and his accusations of her trying to corrupt sweet, innocent little Ruby.

* * *

_**Locker Room, A Few Days Later**_

"I'm rather surprised about this," Pyrrha said aloud to Ichigo as she sat on the end of a bench, putting on her leg armour. Her scroll was on the bench on front of her and she had an earbud in, just in case anyone else should come in while they were talking. "I didn't think Professor Goodwitch would sanction a one versus multiple opponents match. Especially not a four against one."

He snickered. _"I think she's upset with Team CRDL since they've been acting up again. I think you're her punishment by proxy since it wouldn't look good if she beat them down herself. She knows you can handle it, besides I think she wants the others to see what a lopsided fight with multiple opponents looks like. Kind of vindictive though, making CRDL face such unfair odds."_

"Aren't you the charmer?" she grinned. "Trying to inflate my ego before the fight?"

_"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth,"_ he said. _"You've got them outnumbered. They don't stand a chance."_

"It's too bad that they don't take their training more seriously," she lamented. "Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't like them or the way they act, but they're wasting an opportunity and they haven't improved very much since they got here. It could make the difference in their survival in the future."

_"They'll have to wise up at some point or else they'll never graduate," _he said. _"And fortunately that is their problem and not ours. You've got enough work of your own with Jaune."_

"He's starting to get it," she said. "And as he does it strengthens his confidence. He's got a long way to go but he's making a good start."

_"He's got a good instructor,"_ he complimented. _"I don't know if I could be as patient with him as you are though."_

"It wouldn't do him any good for me to show any of the aggravation I might feel from time to time," she admitted. "Especially with his confidence being as lacking as his physical skills. If he wasn't working as hard as he is it might be a different story."

Picking up the armour for her right leg, she gave it a brief inspection and frowned. "The knee joint is stiff."

_"Is it going to affect you during your match?"_ he asked.

"I don't think so but it's definitely not operating as freely as it should be," she answered. "I'll need to go to the workshop tonight. Actually, all of my gear is a little overdue for inspection and maintenance."

_"Something been distracting you Red?"_ he teased.

"Yes, my boyfriend is a terrible distraction," she teased back. Boyfriend. Just hearing or saying the word in reference to herself gave her goosebumps, made her blush, and made her want to giggle like a little girl. She had a boyfriend, as totally odd and bizarre as the circumstances of their relationship was, and the way she felt was unlike anything she had ever experienced before in her life.

She wished that he could be in the outside world with her and there was always a chance that he might be able to one day if they could tap into the full extent of his power. Until then, she was happy to spend whatever time she could with him as she always had.

"_I could always try to be_ less _distracting,"_ he offered cheekily.

"Don't you dare," she smirked.

She put on the leg armour and stood, flexing it a few times. It was noticeably stiff even against the strength of her leg, but not enough that it should hinder her movements. She ran Milo through its transformations, satisfied that it was working fine before settling on its javelin form. Picking up Akuo in her left hand she closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Opening her eyes again they now had a determined look in them. She could feel the adrenaline beginning to take effect and the familiar tingle of nervous anticipation combined with the thrill of the upcoming fight rolled over her like a surging wave.

She had realized and finally admitted that she actually liked the fights. It wasn't just a necessary element of the career she was training for or a necessary evil she had to endure. It was a test, a challenge, the ultimate challenge and she welcomed it wholeheartedly and she felt like she had improved just by admitting that and no longer trying to rationalize it to herself. She had realized that enjoying the fight didn't mean that there was something wrong with her, but at the same time she wasn't inclined to engage in fights that had no purpose or valid reason behind them.

With fire in her eyes and an ever increasing grin she made her way back to the class arena, her stride long and purposeful until she began to jog. By the time she got to the arena she was running at a full charge and stormed the stage like an invading army. To Team CRDL that's what she might as well have been. To anyone in the student audience who didn't think it was possibly for one person to overwhelm four, they were provided with proof to the contrary.

During her domination of the Mistral tournament she became know as the Invincible Girl because no one could land a hit of any significance on her. In large part it was due to her fighting skill but is was well aided by the subtle application of her Semblance. Any bit of metal no matter how small, a shoelace eyelet, a zipper, a metal button or snap, anything was enough for her to use her Semblance to push or pull just enough to send a strike off target.

She was careful in how she used it, not wanting her opponents to figure out what she was doing and it worked. Some thought her Semblance was like a barrier that surrounded her, some thought she used gravity Dust, but none had ever guessed that it was Polarity. Since she had started training with Ichigo she had been learning to rely on it less and less. Outright dodging a little more and deflecting more with Milo and Akuo, but along the way she had been gaining an even more valuable skill that helped her avoid hits.

It was only a short time ago that Ichigo let her in on a little secret about their training. The reason that she hadn't been able to land a hit on him wasn't because he was more skilled. He had surprised her when he told her that if anything she was more technically skilled than he was. No one had actually taught him how to use a sword, he learned through live, life and death combat while she had been receiving skilled instruction for years. He relied on his instincts as he slowly learned to trust them, his ridiculous amount of power and his ability to decipher an opponents fighting style while in combat and adapt to it. But the most prominent asset he relied upon was speed.

As they trained together he had been upping the speed he fought her at as they sparred, just enough to stay ahead of her. As she began to adjust to that speed and get closer to landing blows he would speed up just a little bit more. In the last few months she had begun to notice that her fights in class had become almost ridiculously easy even as the skills of her opponents became noticeably better. Training with Ichigo hadn't just made her faster, it had made her able to perceive the movements of others around her much more quickly and made her able to react to them much faster.

She was already a perceptive combatant who could recognize the signs and tells of an opponent and predict their moves with a great deal of success. She had gone from being able to react to the move in an instant, to being able to strike at the weak point the coming move was creating, literally beating her opponent to the punch as it were. Her opponents all looked slower and just how slow they looked depended upon their skill level and how they fought.

Team CRDL looked like they were moving in quicksand. They were just above mid rank in skill among the first years and they had an attitude about themselves that made them cocky and overconfident, overestimating their own skills and underestimating their opponents. Their moves were easy enough for her to perceive and predict before, but now she had to back it down a bit or else she was going to go through them with such ridiculous ease that not only would she utterly and completely humiliate them, she might actually draw some suspicion to herself.

Even though she could handle them, she didn't need a humiliated and vengeful Team CRDL coming after her or her friends in order to get to her, and she didn't need Professor Goodwitch becoming suspicious and scrutinizing her more than she already had been. She didn't have a plausible explanation to give if the veteran Huntress wanted to know how she had increased her combat speed so much.

The final move of the fight, okay, even while trying to make it look less one sided than it was it was still a very one sided beat down, saw her in mid air with Milo held across Cardin's chest as she spun them to the floor and basically suplexed him into it, shattering what was left of his Aura, and maybe his pride, along with nearly knocking him out. She sprang back to her feet in an instant, javelin and shield ready but she was the only one still standing. She felt slightly embarrassed by the awed looks of her friends that were sitting in the bleachers.

"Excellent work Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch praised her. "You will definitely have no trouble qualifying for the tournament."

"Thank you Professor," she said, relaxing her stance.

"We still have time left for another bout. Any volunteers?" the Professor asked. "Miss Belladonna, what about you? Your participation has been rather low as of late."

Blake looked like a deer caught in the headlights. She had seemed to be rather distracted lately and she obviously hadn't been paying much attention.

"I'll do it," a voice called from up in the top row. Mercury, a cocky silver/grey haired student from Haven that was here for the tournament was now descending the stairs. His partner, a dark skinned, green haired girl named Emerald was giving him an odd look.

"Mercury is it?" Goodwitch said. "Let's find you an opponent."

"Actually I want to fight her," he said, pointing to Pyrrha.

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished a match," Glynda said, not looking entirely pleased. "I recommend choosing someone else."

"It's fine," Pyrrha said. The look on her face was almost predatory. "I'll fight him."

When they first laid eyes on the visitors from Haven Academy, alarm bells had gone off in Ichigo's head, his instincts telling him that something wasn't right. He had let her guess about it at first and to her eye they seemed a little cocky and something in the way they carried themselves didn't seem quite right for a first or even second year academy student. Their team leader, who they had only seen a few times, gave off an even more unsettling vibe and she saw something very...artificial...in the way that she smiled and there was something genuinely off putting about her presence.

She had been training herself lately to recognize things about people outside of combat to help give her a better feel for other people and their motivations, and it didn't hurt to be able to recognize people by their mannerisms. The way a person walked, the gestures they might make with their hands when they talked, the particular way they smiled or smirked, nearly everybody had a number of these things about them that mostly went unnoticed in day to day life. Being able to pick up on them was a useful skill for a Huntress to have.

While the way they carried themselves was one thing, according to Ichigo the eyes told a lot more. In Emerald and Mercury he had seen the same look in their eyes that he had seen in many of the punks he had fought off during his years in high school, the more dangerous ones in particular. He had also learned to read the eyes of his spiritual foes and had learned a lesson or two from his mentors on the subject. He didn't know what their story was, but between observation and instinct he was sure that they weren't mere academy students, or if they were, they were far more dangerous than most.

They had been attending the combat class since their arrival at Beacon but neither of them had participated in any bouts before this. Instead they seemed to be more concerned with observing the other students, the more talented ones in particular and they were doubting that it was just because they were scouting potential opponents before the Vytal tournament. If that had been the case they would have been scrutinizing everyone and not just a very select few.

They didn't interact with the other students very much and when they did it was usually Emerald who did so. They had seen her talking to Ruby once or twice and the moment the little reaper had gone on her way the look on Emerald's face had been one of pure disgust and disdain, like she had a bad taste in her mouth and couldn't wait to spit it out. She and Mercury both seemed to exude a barely concealed air of thinking they were somehow if not above, then at least beyond the other students around them.

Mercury suddenly showing an interest in participating in a class sparring match was suspicious and wanting to fight her even though she had just finished a bout was a red flag for them.

_"He's fishing for something,"_ Ichigo said. _"They've been content to just observe so far, so if he's suddenly interested in participating it makes me think he's trying to find something or confirm something."_

_"Think it's my Semblance?"_ she asked.

_"Maybe," _he answered._ "If that's it he might think it has something to do with the speed you were fighting at since you didn't use your Semblance against CRDL. You didn't give him any reason to think about Polarity."_

_"I'll be sure not use it against him either then," _she said.

_"Of course, he could just be trying to get a closer look at your cleavage,"_ he teased with a bit of a growl in his voice. _"We've seen the way his eyes roam."_

She shuddered. "_Eeew! Ichigo why would you plant that though just as I'm about to fight him?"_

_"Extra incentive to have his face get up close and personal with Akuo," _he answered.

_"Didn't take you for the jealous type,"_ she teased back.

"_I'm not_,_"_ he countered. _"Looking doesn't bother me, but leering does. It's disrespectful."_

_"Well in that case I'll be sure to give him a proper thrashing on your behalf."_

Mercury stepped onto the arena stage with a cocky little smirk in place and sure enough his eyes were giving her an up and down appraisal. She felt the sudden need to shower and she scowled in displeasure, staring him straight in the eye. He seemed a bit surprised at her reaction.

"Fighter's ready?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

"Ready," she responded coldly.

"Sure," he drawled, getting another displeased look from the Professor.

"Begin!"

They began to circle each other, she in a ready stance and minding her footwork while he sauntered along like he was out for a stroll, still smirking all the while. She took a couple of lazy jabs at him with her javelin to see what he would do and he barely flinched. The third time she took a quick step forward when she jabbed, forcing him to turn sideways to avoid it and she followed up with a shield bash. It banged harmlessly into his arm and Aura. He took a quick step back then countered with a quick snap kick that she deflected away with Akuo.

Taking a couple of steps back he gave her a nod and a look that pretty much said 'not bad'. It was all she could do to not roll her eyes. He burst into a sudden flurry of movement, unleashing a series of short, sharp kicks. She twisted and turned to one side or the other to avoid them, taking a couple of steps back as she did but not letting him back her up with enough haste to mess up her footing.

The last of the series of kicks was a spinning back kick with his right foot. She spun in the opposite direction and met his boot with the shaft of her javelin, forcing him to continue the spin but with his balance now compromised. As he spun past her she planted a side kick of her own into the middle of his back and sent him stumbling away. To his credit he didn't fall but the look he gave her when he righted himself was an angry one. She smirked at him. It looked like he was finally going to get serious.

He jerked his right foot and she heard the mechanism of his weapon cock itself a moment before he fired a shot at her feet to make her move. She was surprised that he hadn't used it before this. Talaria was a pair of boots that operated in a very similar fashion to Yang's Ember Celica. While no one was expected to tell the class exactly how their weapon worked, all participants were required to show their weapons before they were allowed to take part in the class and it had been no different when the transfer students arrived.

As she expected the tactic was to get her feet moving so he could rush her and upset her footwork and put her on the defensive. Fortunately for her she was a very good defensive fighter, it was one of the first skills she had learned. If you couldn't defend and fight from a defensive posture there wasn't much point in fighting at all. Having nothing but offence might work for a while but it was a style doomed to failure in the end.

He came at her, firing shots to back her up and to her right which would wind up putting her off the stage and thus out of the boundary and causing a loss. She let him think he was succeeding, drifting to her right to avoid shots and blocking others with Akuo. As she neared the edge she suddenly shifted Milo to its rifle form and began firing back, causing him to break his rhythm. She was strong enough to fire one handed but her accuracy obviously suffered for it. It didn't matter, she just had to come close enough to disrupt the flow of his attack.

It worked, but not quite the way she planned. He suddenly backpedalled several steps and right at the moment that she began to move forward again. He fired off several shots at her far faster than she thought was possible. With a sudden charge he executed a forward flip, aiming to smash her in the head with an axe kick. She met his foot with Akuo as it came down and pushed herself to her full height. Her strength absorbed the momentum and force and pushing herself up forced him back. He hit the floor hard on his back, Akuo still forcing his leg back and the muzzle of Milo's rifle form stuck in his crotch. Before he could snap his left leg toward her she stomped down on his ankle and pinned the foot to the floor.

"I yield!" he called out grudgingly as he glared daggers at her. Aura or not, he was not about to take a point blank rifle shot to the nuts.

She backed off into a still defensive stance, shifting Milo back to javelin form.

"That's the match," Goodwitch declared. "Winner, Pyrrha Nikos. May I suggest Mr. Black that next time you take the match more seriously and not insult your opponent with such a lackadaisical effort?"

"Sure thing teach," he muttered with an almost dismissive wave over his shoulder as he went back to his partner.

_"What a dick,"_ Ichigo commented. _"You should have gone ahead and shot him in the nuts."_

Glynda glowered at the boy but held her tongue about his attitude. "Remember students, I will be conducting a weapon inspection tomorrow so it would be in your best interests to spend some time before then to clean and maintain your equipment. Class dismissed."

_"At least he didn't get whatever he was after," _she said as she inspected Akuo. No damage but a few dark smudges that should be easy enough to polish away. _"If the look on his face is any indication to go by at least."_ She glanced over to where he was walking out with Emerald.

_"Yeah, he looks pretty agitated," _Ichigo said. _"Sucks to be him."_

_"If he tries again he'll take it much more seriously," _she said.

_"And he'll probably be looking to do some real harm too. If for no other reason, his ego will demand it."_ Ichigo chuckled. _"I don't think he appreciated having his junk threatened."_

_"All of his attacks are based around the ability to kick,"_ she continued. _"It's a very limited fighting style. Take that skill away and he won't have much else. As for his junk, next time he won't be so lucky. Milo's clip was empty. I was out of bullets."_

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh, cackling like a certain Hollow.

* * *

The end of the week saw the arrival of the yearly school dance. Team RWBY had been busy finalizing all of the preparations, having taken over when the second year team, Team CFVY, was late coming back from a field assignment. Typically, no one had asked her to the dance. Well, one person had, he just didn't have the ability to operate in the outside world and no amount of wishing by either of them was going to make it so. She would still get to dance with him afterwards though, just like always.

She had spent a great deal of time staring at the long red dress hanging in her closet. The same dress she had worn to the last dance she attended after the Mistral tournament. There was nothing wrong with it but she felt like it represented her past self, something she had moved on from and that maybe something new was in order. So, she made the decision to go shopping and she took Nora with her since she knew the girl didn't have a dress yet for the dance.

Some might question the wisdom of inviting Nora along but she genuinely liked the girl. Yes, she was rather excitable and could be a real handful at times, but she was always good company. She was a lot smarter than what people ever gave her credit for and she was more than capable of holding a normal conversation without bouncing off the walls. At least for a while.

While she didn't have a lot of information about her and Ren's past, she had just enough to form an idea or two as to why she acted the way she did. She and Ichigo had talked about it few times and there were similarities between the way his friend Orihime acted and the way Nora acted. A psychological crutch to paper over a painful past. Whatever had happened she knew that she and Ren didn't have much more than each other, little in the way of possessions or even much variety in clothes that weren't part of their Huntsman and Huntress gear or their school uniforms, which had been supplied by Beacon.

She would have gladly shared the contents of her closet with the girl if they had been anywhere near the same build, but she didn't have anything that would come close to fitting her. What Nora did have she obviously didn't wear very often, likely in order to preserve it, her jeans and t-shirt looked like they had rarely been worn. Same for the white sneakers she had on. Although, she could say the same for her own jeans and blouse and ankle boots. She really didn't get out enough.

_"Seems I've heard someone say that before somewhere,"_ Ichigo said innocently.

_"Oh hush_," she admonished lightly. _"But, you're not wrong."_

Nora had seemed genuinely touched that she wanted to go shopping with her and after an initial outpouring of pure, trademarked Nora-ness, she calmed down and was on her best behaviour. They chatted and joked about a lot of things. Normal things.

"Has anyone asked you to the dance?" Nora asked as they looked at the racks of dresses in one of the downtown shops.

"Predictably, no," Pyrrha answered, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"But...doesn't that hurt?" The worry was evident in her voice and she could have hugged her for it.

"A little," she conceded. "But not as much as it used to."

"Jaune should have asked you," Nora said, a little perturbed. "But he's too busy chasing Weiss. She's never going to go out with him."

"He'll catch on eventually," she said. "Hopefully before she turns him into an ice sculpture. He did ask me if I had been asked to the dance and when I told him no he couldn't believe it. He said that if I still didn't get asked that he'd show up in a dress."

Nora laughed. "You know he'd do it too. 'An Arc always keeps his word'," she said, doing a bad imitation of their team leader.

"Which is very honourable," Pyrrha said. "But in this case he should make an exception."

"It would be memorable," Nora chuckled. "But he should save himself the humiliation. Although given his attempts with Weiss, I'm not sure he can help himself. So...even though you don't have a date for the dance you're still going?"

"I can still socialize with my friends and that's the most important thing," she answered. "And there's always the chance that I might get a dance out of someone."

"It still stinks that nobody asked you." It seemed that Nora was determined to be grumpy about it on her behalf.

_"I did get asked by the one I want to dance with the most,"_ she thought.

_"I just wish I could give you that dance out there among your friends,"_ he said.

_"That would be grand but just you and I has its own advantages."_ Like not having the feeling that every eye in the room was upon you and some of those eyes being overly jealous or lustful.

"I'll still enjoy the evening I'm sure," she said aloud. "Just as I'm sure you and Ren will."

Nora's face turned red and she started to stammer. "W-what do you mean? R-Ren and I are j-just friends. We're not 'together-together'."

"Uh huh," Pyrrha smirked, not convinced at all. "That doesn't mean you can't still have fun together at the dance does it?"

"I-I guess not."

She allowed Nora a moment to gather herself. "So...do you _want_ to be 'together-together' with Ren?"

"...!"

_"She's turning purple,"_ Ichigo observed.

"Breathe Nora, breathe!" she pleaded. She placed her hands on the shorter girl's shoulders. "Follow me, in, out. In, out. In, out. That's good, keep going." It took the girl a couple of minutes to recover. "I'm sorry Nora, I didn't mean to upset you. Although, your response does kind of answer my question."

"Ren and I...we've been together for a long time," Nora said quietly. "And we've been through a lot of stuff. Bad stuff. I..."

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to Nora," she said. "But if you ever do want to talk, about anything, I'll listen."

"Thanks Pyrrha," she said, her relief evident. "It's just...it's still hard to talk about, but one day, maybe..."

"I understand and again I'm sorry."

"And, could you maybe...not say anything about wanting to be 'together-together' with Ren?"

Pyrrha smiled. "Your secret is safe with me."

_"Some secret,"_ Ichigo huffed. _"Anyone who looks at them can tell." _She couldn't disagree.

"I'll even give you a secret of mine in trade," she continued.

"What? You don't have to do that Pyrrha, I trust you."

"It's only fair," she responded. "I have someone I want to be together with too, someone who means everything to me and I can easily say that I wouldn't be the person I am today without him. I would probably still be someone who let others run my life and who just blindly followed along. The old me wouldn't have stood up to Weiss or Cardin. Unfortunately he doesn't attend Beacon but I feel like he's always with me. We'll be together in time."

_"And here I thought you were going to tell her that you love to go skinny dipping,"_ Ichigo cracked.

"Wow Pyrrha, your face just went really red!" Nora exclaimed. "Thinking of something naughty?" she sing-songed.

"Skinny dipping," she muttered before she realized she'd actually said it. Ichigo was laughing and she wanted to tweak him because she knew he would think that she would never admit to it. Saying it out loud caused her to turn an even deeper shade of red and slap her hands over her mouth.

Nora had come to a dead stop, her eyes wide and head cocked to one side. She was sure that there was steam escaping her ears and there was a trickle of blood slowly making its way out of her nose. The orangette was either visualizing it, or she could be visualizing her and Ren doing it...or something entirely different. No one could ever really be sure about what went on inside Nora's head.

They finally sorted themselves out and regained their senses. Nora still had a silly grin on her face when she raised her hand and presented her right pinky finger. "A secret for a secret?"

Pyrrha smiled and met the gesture. "A secret for a secret."

They both giggled before turning back to the racks of clothing. "So, see anything you like?" she asked.

"Hmm, this is cute," Nora answered. She was holding up a knee length, strapless dress. From the waist up it was a subtle shade of pink and the bottom half was white. A small frown came to her face and she noted that it was when Nora glanced at the price tag.

"Why don't you set it aside and find a couple more then try them on?" she suggested. "I just hope I can find something that fits." Her height and the width of her shoulders were usually the two biggest obstacles.

"We may have something on the racks by the change rooms," the sales clerk said. The woman had just come over to see if she could help them after giving them some time to browse. "We recently expanded our size ranges, including tall sizes. There may be something there to your liking."

"Thank you," she said pleasantly. "I'll go and have a look."

About fifteen minutes later they each had three selections and went to try them on. The other two that Nora picked out was a turquoise dress in a similar style to the first one she had picked up, only it had two narrow shoulder straps. The colour matched her eyes but didn't quite look right on her. The second was a long white dress that tied around her neck and left her shoulders bare. That wasn't doing it either.

The first one Pyrrha tried on was a green dress with a slanted hem and a single shoulder strap over her right shoulder. It looked...okay, but it didn't scream 'buy me!'. The second dress was a lilac shade and wrapped around her from left to right with a significant split up the right side. She liked the style well enough but the colour wasn't quite right for her.

For their third try Nora was wearing the first dress she had picked up and Pyrrha was wearing a red, knee length, off the shoulder dress that showed off her trim contours.

"Wow, I guess red really is your colour Pyrrha," Nora said. "That looks really good on you."

"You don't think maybe it's a little...too much?" she questioned.

Nora gave her a look that said '_seriously'? _"If you've got it, flaunt it and you've definitely got it Pyrrha."

_"You look stunning Pyrrha,"_ Ichigo said seriously. _"Honestly, you look fantastic in that."_

It was all she could do to not smile like a giddy fool. "Well you look wonderful in that Nora. I knew you would."

Nora's shoulder's sagged. "Yeah, I like it too but it's a little out of my range."

Pyrrha smiled, the amused look on her face confusing the hammer wielder. "I guess it's a good thing then that you don't have to worry about that since I'm going to buy it for you."

Nora's eyes went wide. "What! Pyrrha...no, you don't need to do that, I-Iwould never ask you to..."

Pyrrha leaned in and booped her on the nose with her finger to quiet her. "I know you wouldn't, but I have the means and you're my friend and I want to buy my friend a gift."

"But Pyrrha, I haven't done anything to deserve this," Nora pleaded.

"You're my friend Nora, that's reason enough," she said. "Your friendship means a lot to me. Same with Ren, Jaune, and Team RWBY. Some of you didn't know who I was and with the exception of Weiss, if you did know you didn't care or make a fuss about it. And you're still my friends. You haven't tried to use me and you haven't walked away like so many others did and that means everything to me."

"Pyrrha, I..." It was both odd and amusing to see the chatterbox at a loss for words and she could tell that she was genuinely touched. The watery look in her eyes also suggested to her that gifts were not something she received often and if what she had observed over the last few months and what she suspected about her and Ren's background was correct, then good friends were a rare commodity for her as well.

"Thank you!" Nora blurted out as she enveloped her in a crushing hug.

She returned the gesture, though much more gently. "You're more than welcome Nora." It made her happy to see how much this obviously meant to the girl. "Now lets go find some shoes."

They returned the other dresses to the racks and changed back into their clothes. For shoes they both chose something with modest heels. Nora's shoes were white while Pyrrha's were a gold colour that was more like a heeled sandal with straps that crossed over her feet and wound up her ankles. For accessories she got Nora a silver necklace with a turquoise heart shaped pendant and a pair of gold bracelets for herself. She already had a necklace back at the dorm that was a match for the green gems that hung from her head piece and it would go wonderfully with the dress.

They went for lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon idly looking through stores and chatting about anything that came up, both of them very happy for their own reasons to be in the company of someone they could call a friend.

* * *

On the night of the dance she arrived just a little bit later than everyone else. Mostly because she was going on her own and she felt that arriving early would have made her stand out more than she already would. With most of the rest of the students already there and busy with their dates, she could slip in mostly unnoticed. Or so she hoped.

When she arrived she saw Ruby and Jaune standing near the punch bowl, but before she could reach them Jaune took off seeming very determined about something.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure," Ruby answered a bit sheepishly. "He thought Weiss came to the dance with Neptune but she didn't and now I think he's gone looking for him."

She sighed. "I just hope he doesn't do something foolish." She noticed Ruby taking quick, furtive glances at her and her cheeks were slightly pink. She hid her smirk. "Is something wrong Ruby?" she asked innocently.

She got a little redder. "Oh...um, nothing. Just...your dress...you...wow."

Fortunately there was a lull in the music or she may not have heard everything she said. "I'll take that as a compliment," she said with a chuckle. "You look very nice yourself Ruby. That dress was a good choice."

Add another shade of red. "Weiss picked it out," she admitted. "I don't know much about fancy clothes. She insisted on the shoes too. How do you fight in heels? I can't even walk in them!" Waving her arms around in emphasis made her wobble on said heels and Pyrrha laid a hand on her should to steady her.

"Long practice," she said. "Even just walking in them does take a little getting used to. So, are you here by yourself or did someone ask you out?"

Getting a touch redder. "No no, I don't have a date!" she said quickly, waving her arms again and only staying upright because of Pyrrha's hand on her shoulder again. "Since our team was put in charge of setting it up I thought I should be here. Even though dances aren't my thing. And Yang and Weiss never would have let me not go."

She smiled. "Well I'd be happy to keep you company then."

"But what about your date?" Ruby asked.

"I don't have one," she answered simply. "So I'm all yours for the evening."

Ruby's reddening face and Ichigo's snickering puzzled her for a moment until her words sunk in. _"Wow,"_ he chortled. _"I know Ruby's cute and adorable, but I didn't expect you to flirt with her."_

_"I'm not!"_ she protested. _"That's not what I meant!"_

_"Suuuure it isn't," _he teased.

"But...don't you want someone to dance with?" Ruby asked somewhat sheepishly.

"Well, we could always dance together," she suggested.

"B-but I can't even walk in these shoes," she blurted out. "...and I don't know how to dance," she finished in a much more subdued tone.

"You can always take the shoes off," she suggested. "I don't think anyone will care even if they notice and the floor is smooth so you won't ruin your stockings. As for not knowing how to dance, I'd be happy to show you how."

"O-okay." The enticement to get out of the deathtrap known as high heels was more than enough for her to agree and shed the cursed things, shoving them out of the way under the refreshment table.

Pyrrha led them away from the table and put enough distance between them and the other dancers so that they wouldn't get in the way. "Okay Ruby, give me you hand," she instructed as she held out her right hand. Ruby clasped her hand with her left. "Now place you other hand on my waist. A little higher," she said with a light laugh as Ruby slightly missed her mark.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted, clearly embarrassed.

"It's fine," Pyrrha laughed. "Now, watch my feet and follow my lead."

She started as most do with the basic plain box step and by the end of the lengthy piece they were dancing to Ruby had that well in hand. Another slower song followed and she showed and explained to Ruby some variations to the step. The third song was a little faster and required a different style of movement. She had Ruby mirror her moves and it was a herky, jerky, awkward affair that had the younger girl embarrassed at first but by the time the song was over she had her laughing. Ruby Rose, Huntress prodigy in training...didn't possess a lot of rhythm apparently. At least not yet. She was a little too self conscious to let herself feel the music.

"I was awful," Ruby giggled. "I looked like I was having a seizure or something."

Pyrrha laughed. "You didn't look any worse than I did the first time I tried to dance like that."

"I'm pretty sure Yang will never let me live it down," Ruby said, still smiling. "Pretty sure she'll tease me about dancing with another girl too even though she danced with Blake earlier."

"You'll just have to remind her then that I chose to dance with you and not her," Pyrrha grinned. "That should bring her up short."

Ruby laughed. It would be good to get a dig back at Yang for once. "C'mon," she said, gesturing to the nearby balcony. "I could use a little fresh air before I try that again."

She retrieved her shoes and reluctantly put them back on before stepping out of the ballroom and onto the balcony. It was a pleasant evening with a slight breeze and a clear sky that let the moonlight illuminate the rest of the campus before them.

"What the..." she began. "Someone's running across the rooftops."

It only took a second for Pyrrha to find the runner. They were staying low and going as fast as footing would allow. At the moment the were easily visible to anyone in this building who cared to look across the grounds and they were obviously trying to get out of sight quickly. She and Ruby looked at each other. No words needed to be spoken and a moment later they had left the dance behind.

* * *

The prowler could have been heading anywhere so their best course of action was to keep going in the same general direction and keep their eyes and ears open. The unconscious Atlesian military guards outside the CCT tower building was a pretty good indicator that they were in the right place. They were going to need their weapons if they intended to go any further.

Unfortunately, unless she had been willing to hide it in her cleavage, her dress had nowhere that she could put her scroll. Ruby's more modest attire did have a slim pocket in the skirt so she did have hers.

_"Be careful,"_ Ichigo cautioned as Ruby called in her rocket locker before handing her the scroll to do the same. _"It looks like these guys were taken out pretty cleanly so this prowler is either skilled or has help."_

_"No opponent should ever be underestimated,"_ she said. Her instructors had been drilling that into her since her first day of training. Now, she would be putting that thinking to use for the first time in a venue outside of a training hall.

A moment later Ruby's locker arrived, her own a few seconds after. Since Beacon monitored the use of the lockers there would be an alert going off at the school and someone would be along to investigate. Back up of some sort would be along shortly but they weren't about to wait for it.

"Let's go!" Ruby said, heading for the door. She followed.

Inside they found more unconscious guards and there were two more slumped in the elevator which they hauled out and laid next to their comrades. The logical place to check for their prowler would be the communications room on the top floor so that's where they headed.

Pyrrha held up her shield and switched Milo to rifle mode. "Let me exit first in case they're in the mood to attack. If they do I'll keep their attention while you fire back."

"Right," Ruby confirmed, Crescent Rose held ready in rifle mode.

When the doors opened Pyrrha strode out with Akuo held chest high and Milo braced on one of the notches in the shield. She scanned the room as Ruby stepped out, Crescent Rose also panning the area. There was no one readily visible in the room.

"Hello," Ruby called out as she switched to scythe mode, stumbling slightly in her heels as she did. "Is anybody here?"

"You might as well come out since we'll find you anyway," Pyrrha added.

A few seconds later someone stood up from behind one of the large console desks. It was a dark haired woman in a black, skin tight bodysuit undone just enough at the front to show a little cleavage. She wore a mask over her eyes and nose like she was an attendee to a masquerade ball.

A sense of recognition struck her. The almost strutting walk as the prowler sauntered out from behind the desk, the little smirk on her face, and the eyes. She hadn't even covered or tied back her hair to help alter her looks. She was sure of the identity of their prowler and Ichigo confirmed it for her.

"Cinder Fall," she said.

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed.

The woman's gaze shot to her and the little smirk became a scowl, bordering on a snarl. In an instant she yanked a cylindrical object from the belt that circled her waist and swung it at them, Dust spewing from it. With a sweep of her hand those particles grew in size and became finger long shards that shot towards them. Ruby spun Crescent Rose to block the shards that came at her and Pyrrha used Akuo. The shards erupted in an orange/red flash upon contact and they could feel the wash of heat from them.

Ruby began firing at her but she easily blocked the heavy rounds with a wave of her hand. If ever there was proof needed that this woman was not a student level Huntress in training this was it. Ichigo might be the only person she knew of that could do something like that. The look on Ruby's face was one of not so much surprise, but recognition, like she had seen this before. She'd have to be sure to ask where and when. As a distraction, if nothing else, she opened fire as well. The first round surprised Cinder but harmlessly deflected off of her Aura.

When she began blocking her rounds too it left a hole in her defence. Ruby took advantage and lunged at her with Crescent Rose. Cinder had to jump back to avoid the razor sharp weapon. Not just back but up as well. She seemed to hang in mid air as she swept her hands in front of herself and was suddenly holding two obsidian blades shaped like scimitars. She hurled Akuo at her but she was able to deflect it up and behind her, seemingly without breaking her motion as she connected the hilts of the two swords together to form a bow. Three arrows appeared out of nowhere just like the swords had and she aimed them in her and Ruby's general direction.

Using her Semblance she pulled Akuo back towards her and just as Cinder was letting the arrows fly, the shield slammed hard into the back of her head. There was a flash and an explosion in front of them and they had to shield themselves from the heat flash and the debris from the torn up floor. Looking through the dust cloud she saw Cinder getting up off the floor, giving her head a shake and rubbing the back of it where she had been struck. Her Aura may have taken the blow but it didn't mean that she hadn't felt it and she had made sure Akuo had plenty of momentum for the strike just for that reason.

The look on Cinder's face was one of unbridled fury and she was sure she actually saw the beginnings of flames coming from the outer corners of her eyes. She grabbed the Dust container from her belt again and it began to glow in her hand. She tossed it at them and on instinct she pulled Ruby back to the floor as she summoned Akuo with her Semblance. She got it between them and the Dust cylinder just as Cinder made a gesture with her hand and the cylinder exploded. They were shielded from most of the blast and their Aura took care of the rest. Their ears were ringing and there was a lot of smoke but no sign of Cinder. Somehow she had manged to get away. A moment later the elevator opened and General Ironwood stepped out with a rather large pistol held in his hand.

They immediately told him what happened and he put the word out to detain Cinder Fall and her team, but despite the quick response they managed to evade capture. After a thorough debriefing by Ironwood and Professor Ozpin they were finally able to go back to their teams who were worried sick about them.

What followed was a whole lot of reassuring and getting full disclosure from Team RWBY about some of the things they had been getting involved in. It might not have happened if Ruby hadn't told Ozpin and Ironwood during the debriefing that Cinder had mentioned something about a hideout or something in the southeast, when she knew that Cinder hadn't said anything at all. She didn't contradict Ruby and she was pretty sure that Professor Ozpin wasn't believing it, or that Cinder was the actual source. General Ironwood seemed just a little too gung ho about having a potential lead to have noticed.

After getting Ruby and RWBY to spill the beans her team made them promise to stop going it alone. They could help and they wanted to help and they wanted to have their friend's backs. She had a gut feeling that there was a whole lot more going on around them than any of them knew. She wasn't sure why, maybe it was Ichigo's instincts leaking through, but she wasn't about to let her friends get caught up in it alone and not have someone they could rely on to have their backs and fight beside them.

* * *

Needless to say it was late by the time they all got to bed so it was late when she appeared in the inner world. The overall mood was kind of down but she was determined to have a dance or two with Ichigo and she got her wish. Afterwards they sat in their usual place on the deck.

"That was a nice thing you did at the dance," he said. "Even if it isn't her sort of thing I think Ruby still had fun."

"Attending a dance alone isn't much fun," she said. "Of course, neither is having to attend with people that are convenient for a group of sponsors. No one had asked her to go with them either so I thought I'd fill that hole for her."

"So then you'd both have a date." He grinned. "And you certainly could have done a lot worse than the adorable Ruby Rose."

"I _wasn't_ flirting with her," she reminded him, knowing where he was likely heading.

He favoured her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow that said, _'really?'_

"It was not intentional," she protested. "I can't help it, it's like an automatic response. She's just too cute when she's all flustered and blushing."

He laughed. "Kind of like you then."

She rolled her eyes and gave him a harmless swat on the arm. And blushed.

"I'm glad you were with her though when she spotted the prowler," he continued. "She seems to find more than her share of trouble and excitement doesn't she?"

"Yes and she isn't afraid to jump right into it with both feet," she added. "And I don't think she always looks before she does. I wonder what Cinder was up to?"

"Can't be anything good if she was willing to come here with a group posing as students," he answered. "If all she wanted to do was sneak into the CCT she could have done that anytime. She wouldn't have needed to go through all of that otherwise. And don't forget, Emerald and Mercury were eyeballing anyone with skill pretty closely for some unknown reason."

"And if she's tied in with Torchwick that makes things even worse," she added. When she and her team was talking to Team RWBY, Ruby had recalled seeing Cinder's bullet stopping technique before. It was on the night she stopped Torchwick's Dust shop robbery.

"Cinder, Torchwick, and the White Fang all tied together...something big is going on," he said. "Something way bigger than what a team of first year trainees should be getting in the middle of, but if they hadn't none of this may have been exposed."

"Ruby and her team are likely going to have a target on their backs now," she surmised. "They've disrupted their plans several times."

"You're on that list now too," he reminded her. "Tonight put you on it and I'm pretty sure Cinder isn't about to forget that shot to the head either. All of you are going to have to be extra careful. She and her group may have run, but I'm willing to bet that they haven't gone too far."

"Do you think this all has something to do with the Vytal Festival?" she asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised," he said. "I mean, all of these teams from the other academies are here for the tournament and they were posing as one of them. Seems like too much of a coincidence otherwise."

She sighed. "I suppose it's too much to hope for that their plans have now been disrupted enough to keep them from doing anything else."

"Unfortunately, only time will tell," he said. "But knowing that something is in the works is better than knowing nothing at all. At least now we know to be suspicious and aware." He smirked. _"Stay vigilant!" _he declared, doing his best imitation of Professor Port.

She laughed and leaned into him. "Well whatever they might try we won't let them have their way." She kissed him. "I'm enjoying this new path in life that I'm on and I'm not about to lose it or let them ruin it."

He smiled and held her a little tighter. "Thus has spoken Remnant's Goddess of War. Tempt not her wrath."

They both laughed and it lightened the sombreness of the mood. They still had some time before she needed to leave so they simply enjoyed the closeness and warmth and the serenity that surrounded them.

* * *

**AN:** Hopefully that didn't suck and I hope to hear from the readers who have stuck with it over the delay.

Some may wonder why I put the scene with Pyrrha and Nora going shopping. I wanted to show Pyrrha taking a little initiative and doing something with a friend, to show how she has become less closed off.

Thanks for reading and feel free to review. And to repeat, trolls and idiots need not bother. I don't need them hanging around. None of us do.


	6. Not All Fairy Tales Have A Happy Ending

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

I lied. This isn't the last chapter but the next one will be. With the way it was shaping up it made more sense to me to make two out of it rather than one.

Unfortunately I still seem to be suffering some of the effects of my difficulties that I experienced prior to writing the last chapter so this took a lot longer than I anticipated. Things haven't been coming as freely to me while writing as they had been and I find my concentration lacking at times and I become too easily distracted. I hate it but it is what it is and I'll have to find some way to kick it in the ass and make it stop.

Anyway, enough of that. I just hope this chapter doesn't suck because of that difficulty. Enjoy the read and please feel free to leave a review.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 6: Not All Fairy Tales Have A Happy Ending**_

She couldn't stop shaking. Being told about something that almost no one else knew, something that drastically changes what you know and believe about the very world you're living in can have that effect. She supposed that she should be used to it considering what she had learned from Ichigo about how Remnant came to be in the first place. That information at least predated known history so in retrospect it didn't seem as shocking as what she had learned today.

Between the doubles and singles rounds of the Vytal Festival tournament she had been asked to come to Professor Ozpin's office. She thought he wanted to talk to her about her upcoming participation in the singles tournament so she was a little surprised when she arrived and there was someone in the office with him, someone she didn't recognize at first but as soon as he introduced himself as Qrow Branwen, she realized that he was the Uncle that Ruby had once told her about. The one who had inspired her to take up the scythe as a weapon and who had trained her in its use.

_'What's your favourite fairy tale?'_ A rather innocent and benign question and not something she would ever expect to be asked by Headmaster Ozpin of all people. Even more unexpected was to discover that at least one of Remnant's many fairy tales was actually real. The Four Maidens, four young women who visited an old hermit and brought light and meaning back into his life. The old man was a wizard and he granted the four great powers to go out and help make the world a better place.

Each Maiden represented one of the four seasons and when a Maiden passed on so would her powers. They would go to someone specific who was in her thoughts or to someone randomly if no one was. In either case they would always go to another young woman. The current Fall Maiden was being kept in secret here at Beacon after having been attacked and a large part of her power stolen from her. The flame-like flaring she had seen around Cinder's eyes apparently was a hallmark of that power meaning that it was Cinder that had done the deed.

Partway through the meeting they were joined by Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood of Atlas and her anxiety level rose exponentially. They, along with the other Headmasters at Shade and Haven, and a few others, were a group that kept Remnant's deepest secrets and worked behind the scenes to protect it. They didn't elaborate about what exactly they were protecting the world from but she would have bet just about anything that it was more than just the Grimm.

Something like this had never happened before so they didn't know what would happen to the remaining power the Fall Maiden held if...when she passed. It might go to someone new like usual or it might seek out the rest of itself and go to Cinder, giving her the complete powers of a Maiden. Because of that uncertainty they wanted to transfer that remaining power to a new host to safeguard against that happening. They wanted her to be that new host.

Finding out that the fairy tale was true had stunned her, being chosen, if willing, to be the new host left her speechless and her head spinning. As they had ridden the elevator from Professor Ozpin's office down into the previously unknown sub-levels under the school, they referred to it as 'the vault', she felt very small being surrounded by them. Her legs shook the whole way down the long corridor and it was all that she could do to remain standing when they reached the end. Fortunately along the way Ichigo had been softly reassuring her or else she may not have kept herself together.

At the end of that corridor was a large assemblage of machinery. At one end of it was a chamber, far too reminiscent of a coffin for her tastes, that held the unconscious form of Amber, the Fall Maiden. The machinery was the only thing currently keeping her alive and they didn't know how long it would be able to continue doing so. At the opposite end of the machine was another chamber like the one Amber occupied, except it was empty. If she accepted their proposal she would enter that pod and they would transfer what remained of Amber's Aura, her soul, into her.

She had gone ghostly pale and nearly passed out upon hearing that. They weren't even sure what the exact effect would be. She could remain unchanged, Amber might become the dominant force of her soul, or they could be mixed and become someone entirely different from either of them. It took every ounce of strength she'd had to remain standing and to keep from throwing up.

That feeling hadn't left her after they let her go, expecting a decision one way or the other from her by the end of the tournament. She had stumbled through the school, barely aware of her surroundings. Thankfully nearly all of the students were at the tournament arena so the number of people that saw her in such a state was minimal. She made it to her destination, the roof, before her legs gave out and she slumped up against the well next to the door.

_"Breathe Pyrrha,"_ Ichigo urged her. _"Concentrate on that."_

Even with his coaching it took a few minutes for her breathing to return to a normal rhythm, but it didn't do a lot to quell the queasiness she still felt or still the tremors that shook her whole body.

"How can they..." Her voice was shaky and she had to swallow a persistent lump in her throat. "How can they even think of doing something like that?"

_"They would have to be really desperate,"_ he responded. _"And to be_ that _desperate it makes me think that there's a hell of a lot more going on than what they told you. At least Goodwitch and Ruby's Uncle weren't happy about it. Opzin seemed uncomfortable but resigned to it." _His tone became a little darker._ "Ironwood though seemed a little too gung ho about it. Like he was actually proud that the technology existed." _Unfortunately that pride in their technology was a rather annoying trait among many Atlesians.

"The possible consequences...does that mean they don't know and they're guessing, or that they've seen them happen?" The thought that they had actually done this any number of times before almost made her wretch.

_"It didn't sound like he was completely guessing about it." _He didn't need to elaborate further.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "That girl, Amber, even though she was unconscious she looked like she was in pain. I can't imagine what it must be like to have your soul torn apart like that, to have a part of it ripped away from you." She blanched and nearly stopped breathing. "Oh Gods Ichigo I'm so sorry. I..."

_"It's okay Red," _he assured her._ "I'm pretty sure that when I was reincarnated the parts of my soul that were my Zanpakuto spirits were blended back into the whole so they weren't torn from me. It doesn't even feel like it did when I was powerless for a while. When I used the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho I used so much power that I lost the ability to sense or feel my Zanpakuto spirits...or any kind of spirits anymore. At the time I thought I had lost part of my soul but that wasn't the case and it was always still there." _

He paused for a moment, his words more sombre. _"It hurt, but even at that I guess I was lucky compared to the Shinigami that lost their Zanpakuto spirits during Muramasa's rebellion. I was told that they were never the same again, that they had an emptiness and a pain inside of them that they couldn't get rid of and a lot of them couldn't deal with it. The spirits that lost their wielders all went mad and had to be hunted down or else they would have slaughtered everyone the saw."_

She sighed heavily. "It makes you wonder what other fairy tales are true. The Two Brothers, The Maiden in the Tower, The Shallow Sea. The story of the Maidens being true already turns what we know about Remnant's history on its head, but if more of those stories are true..."

_"Then we have no idea what other kind of threats might be out there,"_ he finished. _"It certainly changes the game doesn't it? They should add a collection of Remnant's fairy tales to the required reading list, maybe teach a class on it."_

She groaned. "If they did they'd probably give it to Professor Port." She sighed heavily again. "Why did they have to choose me for this?"

_"They chose you because you show all of the best qualities of a Huntress and a potential Maiden, and I'm not just saying that because I happen to love you,"_ he said gently, making her blush despite how miserable she felt. _"Whether it's a small part of the Maiden's power or all of it, Ozpin knows that you wouldn't abuse it and that you would use it for the right reasons. Even if you didn't use it at all he knows you would safeguard it."_

"He must know someone else that could do this," she protested. "Someone who is _already_ a trained Huntress and not still learning how to be one."

_"Maybe, maybe not, but you're the one who's here,"_ he offered.

She straightened her legs and leaned her head back against the wall. "It would be one thing if it was the natural process, or even if the Maiden was in poor health and looking for someone to potentially pass the power on to, but this is anything but a natural or consensual process. It's just wrong no matter how you look at it."

_"I agree,"_ he said. _"But unfortunately it might become a necessity. If not for you then for someone."_

She laughed bitterly. "You and I both know how that will turn out. I might not like their method but I understand why they want to do this, why they _have_ to do this. You know what I will do."

He chuckled. _"Yeah, you'll do the same thing I would, and have done before. You'll take it upon yourself to do it because in the end it needs to be done and you're the one that can do it. The power has to be kept out of Cinder's hands and this seems to be the only way to do it."_

"I can't even blame your influence for thinking that way either can I?" she said with a slight smirk.

_"No, you can't,"_ he agreed. _"You had that mindset already before you were ever able to hear me."_

"The decision is actually an easy one if you take out the mind numbing fear of the consequences for both me and her." She closed her eyes as a shudder went through her. "It terrifies me that I...that _we_ might not be us anymore. We might not even _be_ anymore."

She felt his presence envelope her in a way she had never felt before. It was warm and protective and she could feel his love for her like it was a living thing. "Ichigo..." she breathed.

_"I will _never_ allow that to happen,"_ he promised with iron conviction. _"If you choose to take it the remains of the Maiden's power will be yours, but I will never allow another soul to alter us or overtake us. I swear this to you on everything that I am and everything that I ever was."_

Tears began to leak from her eyes and she swore she could feel his arms around her.

_"I was never able to let myself feel for anyone else what I feel for you,"_ he confessed. _"I guess I was scared of losing it if I did. It doesn't matter how weird or messed up this relationship of ours is, all I know is that I love you Pyrrha and I'm not about to let _anything_ interfere with that."_

She closed her eyes again and let herself sink into that feeling of a warm embrace. Such a strong feeling of being loved and desired, it was intoxicating. "I love you too Ichigo," she said breathlessly. "I won't let anything interfere with us either. One day I want to be able to hold you out here in the physical world and I will never give up on that dream."

A far off sound of sirens caused her to open her eyes again. Out across the city of Vale she could see the glow of a building fire and see the flashing of lights as emergency personnel made their way to the scene.

The glow hadn't been there moments before but now it looked like a fully involved, raging inferno.

_"She strikes again most likely,"_ Ichigo said, a distinct edge in his voice.

The "she" he was referring to was of course Cinder Fall, that's who they believed was responsible for the sharp increase of fires and other crimes in Vale since she fled Beacon. It started shortly after the incident the media had labelled "The Breach". Team RWBY had somehow managed to wrangle a mission above their experience level out in the southwest so that they could go hunt for the White Fang and Roman Torchwick.

The end result was them riding a train loaded with White Fang terrorists, Torchwick, and stolen Atlesian Paladin mechs down the abandoned underground train line from the failed settlement of Mountain Glenn and crashing though the sealed off end of the line and right into downtown Vale. Right behind them was a horde of Grimm.

A couple of days after the incident, which had already heightened the angst of the populace, a series of obviously intentional structure fires began. Every night there was at least one and they were like the one tonight, going from seemingly nothing to a raging inferno, and they believed it was because of Cinder's affinity for fire. At the same time there was usually a robbery somewhere and there had been incidents of violence. A few assaults and even a murder or two of either a prominent person of note or someone close to them. Of course, the common criminal element that existed in the city decided that the authorities being busy with all of this going on meant that it was a good time for them to step up their activities as well.

People had already been a little on edge when the Atlesian military had arrived to oversee security of the Vytal Festival. The common question in people's minds had been to wonder what kind of a threat they might be facing that required that much security. Now with the fires and other goings on the level of worry and angst was rising and with it had come an increase in the activity of the Grimm. If that was what Cinder was trying to accomplish, and it was beyond them why in the hell someone would ever want to do that, then she was succeeding.

"The question is why," she said. "Is this retribution for having whatever she was up to here stopped, or is she modifying whatever plan she had before?"

_"I suppose it's possible she was looking to disrupt the festival for whatever reason all along,"_ he suggested. _"Her group did come here posing as students and that would be the ideal way to accomplish something like that."_

"And to have an enormous worldwide audience be witness to it," she added. "I just hope that getting her out of Beacon put a stop to whatever it was she was trying to do."

* * *

Wishful thinking was usually just that and it was proven true again a few days later during her singles match against a student from Vacuo. Poor guy never had a chance. The announcement of her victory was disrupted when the sound suddenly cut out and a giant chess piece, a Queen, appeared on the stadium's video displays. That was soon followed by the smug and condescending vocal tones of Cinder Fall. Well, that answered the question of what she was doing in the CCT the night of the dance. Pyrrha didn't really listen to a lot of what she was saying because she was on guard and scanning the arena for the attack that she just knew had to be coming.

Largely it was a calm diatribe about the seemingly immense power wielded by the Headmasters of the Academies and how that extended to the Huntsmen and Huntresses they trained. She seemed to single out Ironwood since he was also the head of the Atlas military and held two seats on their council. She also made sure to mention how he had flown into another kingdom and taken over security for the festival.

At one point a picture of one of the tournament participants from Atlas, a girl by the name of Penny Polendina, was displayed next to a set of schematics for a robot and accompanied by Cinder's question of "Why do you suppose General Ironwood and the Kingdom of Atlas would send one of their robot soldiers disguised as a little girl to participate in the tournament?"

She continued on with something about how relations were deteriorating between kingdoms and they were far closer to conflict than not. She asked her captive audience who they felt they could trust to have their best interests at heart when things went to hell. And then things proceeded to do just that.

A gigantic Nevermore slammed into the Dust powered force barrier that covered the open top of the stadium. It screeched loudly before it began ramming its beak into the shield, causing it to flare against the strain. As that was happening, sirens began to wail and an automated voice announced a Level Nine Grimm attack.

Panic began to run through the crowd even as General Ironwood came on the public address system and appealed for calm and an orderly evacuation. She went over to the edge of the spectator area where her team and Team RWBY had been watching her match. Other than the arena security, only herself and her opponent were currently armed.

"We need to get outside so that we can call for our weapons!" Ruby exclaimed. By the look on everyone's faces they were all in agreement and wanting to get in on the fight.

The arena shook as the Nevermore reared back and all but dove into the barrier. There was a loud hum and the barrier shut down, allowing the Grimm to descend into the arena.

"Call for them now!" Pyrrha instructed. "I'll keep its attention until you're ready to fight."

She swapped out the standard ammo clip in her rifle for one of the specialized Dust round magazines she had stared carrying. As the Nevermore screamed to intimidate its prey, she carefully aimed and fired a round of Fire Dust into one of its eyes. While a bullet that size wasn't much more than a mosquito bite for a Grimm that size, it was still enough to take out the eyeball and burn the socket, a sensation the Grimm wasn't enjoying at all. Nor did it enjoy the two additional rounds she fired into its open mouth as it screamed at her and which lodged in the back of its throat.

_"I always knew you were hot stuff but I guess he knows it now too,"_ Ichigo chortled.

She groaned. "Seriously? We've been spending too much time around Yang lately and she's clearly been a bad influence on you."

The Nevermore turned its full attention to her but wasn't able to do much else as several rocket propelled lockers rained down through the open roof and slammed into it hard, pinning it to the floor and stunning it when one crashed into the back of its head. Its attempt to regain its senses was short lived as it was attacked from two sides by Yatsuhashi of Team CVFY and Sage of Team SSSN, their weapons slicing through its neck and beheading it. Their victory was short lived however as several Griffons circled down into the stadium.

"Students!" Professor Port bellowed as he and Doctor Oobleck arrived, weapons at the ready. "I think it would be best for you to leave."

"But we..." Ruby began, only to be cut off by Oobleck.

"Miss Rose! This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it."

"Leave these vermin to us!" Port added, ready to add to his already impressive list of accomplishments.

They all made their way to the stadium's transport terminal and landing pads. The majority of the other students and spectators that had fled were already cramming themselves into airships of every size and description to be taken to safety. They were brought up short when they saw a Bullhead at the far end of the landing area disgorging an Ursa from its cargo area before flying off.

"Someone is flying Grimm onto the stadium?!" Jaune exclaimed in horrified disbelief.

"That shouldn't even be possible!" Pyrrha observed.

_"Yep, there's that old familiar feeling of being kept in the dark,"_ Ichigo snarked. _"I didn't miss it in the least. As if we needed anymore proof that what they told you about the Maidens was only the tip of the freaking iceberg."_

A pair of Atlesian Knight robots who were escorting Genral Ironwood, opened fire on the Ursa and killed it only to be smashed to pieces by the enormous paw of an Alpha Beowolf seconds later. The Beowolf took notice of the General as he charged towards it, issuing a battle cry to further gain and hold its attention. Pulling a large pistol out of his coat he slid under a leaping swipe by the large Grimm and fired at it twice, pivoting as he skidded across the floor and using his free hand as a break, carving a line as he stopped.

That left a number of the students gaping, or at least all of the ones who hadn't bothered to look up information on the General like a certain redhead had after being asked to take on the remnants of a Maidens power. Knowledge was power after all and even if she hadn't found out a lot about the General, Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch and Qrow Branwen, she did find out a little bit. Like the fact that most of the right side of the General's body was high tech prosthetics so it wasn't surprising that he could do what he had just done.

The Beowolf shook its head and charged at Ironwood again, who fired his revolver three more times before having to duck under another swipe. The Beowolf attempted to swipe at him again with its left claw, but Ironwood effortlessly stopped it with his own right hand. He fired at the Beowolf's feet, the explosion causing it to get airborne. Still gripping its claw, he proceeded to swing it back down to the ground with his own augmented brute strength. He then picked up the Beowolf, aimed the revolver at its skull and shot it, causing black blood to splatter from it. He watched the body dissipate before turning his attention to the students who were now gathering around him.

"What's going on!?" Ruby asked.

"Grimm are crawling all over the city," he answered. "The White Fang have invaded Beacon and to make matters worse, some... _vagabond_ has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm..." He was interrupted by a Creep that tried attacking the group from behind, which he swiftly dealt with via a bullet to the head. "...going to take it back." He turned towards the small drop ship waiting behind him.

"What should we do?" Jaune asked.

The General turned back towards them. "You have two choices. Defend your Kingdom and your school... or save yourselves." The students exchanged looks with each other. "No one will fault you if you leave." He climbed up on the drop ship. "Let's move out!"

"I certainly have no plans on leaving," Pyrrha said as the students began to board their own transport. "I'm going to fight."

"So am I!" Ruby piped up, predictably.

"Just don't go and do something_ too_ reckless okay?" she cautioned the younger girl.

Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Hehe, I'll try but I can't make any promises."

"Just don't go getting hurt or killed," she countered, rolling her eyes. "I'll be very cross with you if you do."

Not more than a minute into their flight they saw something go wrong with the General's drop ship and it heeled over, heading towards the city and trailing smoke. Ruby bailed out of the back of their transport and Pyrrha could only guess that she was going to try and pick up where the General left off. Though she couldn't figure out how she planned on getting to the General's flagship.

_"So much for not being reckless,"_ she sighed. _"I shouldn't be surprised."_

_"And you wouldn't have done the same?" _Ichigo posed, clearly amused.

_"I might have if we didn't already have a prior appointment waiting for us," _she answered.

_"I guess we better not keep him waiting then."_

* * *

When their ship landed they found themselves in the midst of even more chaos. Several different types of Grimm, even a Goliath, were rampaging across the campus. They trampled over vendor stalls set up for the festival and people screamed in terror as they were chased down by the soulless abominations. They were all horrified but none more so than Nora and Ren. The looks on their faces and their body language spoke of not this fresh horror, but of an old one remembered.

Being noticed by a nearby pack of Beowolves, they shook off the horror and went to work, naturally splitting into their teams and getting to work. There were a lot of Grimm roaming around and no time to waste if they wanted to keep as many people safe as possible and have any chance of defending the school. It didn't help that there were also White Fang present to add to the chaos, shooting at them as they tried to deal with the Grimm.

No one could figure out why the White Fang weren't being targeted by the Grimm as well or why they would do something as horrible and as seemingly impossible like bring the Grimm inside the city's defences. It was probably a good thing that they were so busy trying to survive that they couldn't devote a lot of thought to it. That was probably for the best.

"I need to get into the school and find Professor Ozpin," she told her team.

"What for?" Jaune asked as he finished off another Beowolf.

"Before the singles round started he asked me to consider doing something for him," she answered. "My answer is overdue."

"Is this really the time for that?" Nora asked as she flattened an Ursa's head with Magnhild.

"It's probably more important now than when he asked me," she responded as she speared another Beowolf through the eye. "I've been sworn to secrecy about it but I wouldn't bring it up if it wasn't important."

"There are Grimm everywhere so it matters little which direction we move in," Ren offered, slashing one of his pistol blades through a Creep's throat.

"Let's go then," Jaune said.

Turning ninety degrees to their left, they began making their way to the main school building as fast as they could slay the Grimm in their way. Halfway to their destination they got another rude surprise when they ran into a group three of Atlesian Knight robots, the first they had encountered since landing. Their optic sensors were an angry red colour instead of the usual black and they began firing on them as if they were the enemy.

_"What do you think the odds are that whatever Cinder did is responsible for this too?"_ Ichigo asked. _"The tower, the arena's systems, now these tin soldiers...they all run on Atlas tech."_

_"Too high and too coincidental to bet against it," _she responded as she hurled Akuo at one, slicing its head off while Nora took out the other two with one of her grenades.

Shortly after that the flow of the fight separated them from Ren and Nora. That was also when the ground began to shake violently and the face of the nearest and tallest mountain on the edge of the Kingdom crumbled and what emerged from it was the biggest Grimm any of them had ever seen...a Wyvern. With a roar and a flap of its giant wings it soared in towards Beacon. Globs of smoky black fell from its abdomen, spawning more Grimm when they hit the ground.

"How are we supposed to fight something like that!?" Jaune exclaimed, panic beginning to edge into his voice.

"We don't," she said, pulling him along.

"How can you be so calm?"

"Because panic won't accomplish anything except to make us a more noticeable and tastier target," she said. "And being eaten by a Grimm isn't on my list of things to do today. Come on, we're almost there."

Their opposition had thinned out a bit but it still took several minutes to reach the school where they found Professor Ozpin waiting at the door. She gave him an almost imperceptible nod which he returned in kind along with a sad and resigned look.

"Follow me," he beckoned. "Time is of the essence."

Jaune's curiosity returned while in the elevator, clearly surprised that they were going down and not up to the Headmaster's office. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"Quite likely from the frying pan and into the fire," she quipped. "There is a vault under the school and a rather large secret that I was recently made aware of and asked to be a part of. The fact that I'm here is my answer."

"And I am sorry about that," Ozpin said with genuine remorse. "I truly wish that this wasn't necessary or that there was a different and better way to handle it."

_"There is, kill Cinder and have the power return to the one she stole it from,"_ Ichigo grumbled, playing devil's advocate.

"That makes two of us then Professor," she said. "But unfortunately this is all we have."

"What is going on?" Jaune demanded.

"Are you familiar with the fairy tale of the Seasonal Maidens?" she asked.

"I used to read it to my younger sisters all the time," he answered. "But what does that have to do with this?"

"Regrettably you're about to find yourself caught up in its continuing saga," Ozpin answered as they reached their destination. "Unfortunately any further explanation will have to wait, but if you wish to be helpful I would appreciate it if you would guard the way in. What we are about to do will require my full concentration."

He began operating the controls, causing both pods at either end of the machine to rise. Pyrrha took a deep breath as she waited for her pod door to open.

"Again, I am sorry," the Professor said to her.

She looked to the other pod, to Amber, the girl whose already all but expended life they were about to end with their actions. "So am I," she said sadly.

The pod opened and she took her place inside, fighting back a moment of anxiety as the door closed and sealed. _"Are you ready Ichigo?"_ she asked nervously.

_"Ready,"_ he answered, making sure she could feel his presence as much as possible.

The machine hummed to life and a moment later her world lit up and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. The worst pain she had ever experienced burned its way through every nerve and every muscle. Her body went rigid, every joint and muscle strained to the limits and feeling like they were going to pop or tear. Just as suddenly as it began, it stopped and she went limp. It took about three seconds as she tried to recover for her to realize that something was very, very wrong.

She couldn't feel Ichigo anymore.

This wasn't like when he would go silent in an effort to politely allow her to be alone with her thoughts. She appreciated the gesture but pleaded with him not to do so because when he did it felt like he wasn't there. That was a terrible and fearful silence, most likely born out of a sense of paranoia due to her life's earlier loneliness. This was something different and far, far worse.

It was an abyssal silence and a horrifying feeling that wasn't just quiet, but empty, devoid of anything and everything. She couldn't feel even a trace of his presence.

"Ichigo!" she called out hoarsely, panic beginning to well up inside of her. She began feebly pounding her fists against the pod's lid, there wasn't much room inside to move. "Ichigo!" Tears began to stream from here eyes. "Please...where are you Ichigo!"

Frantic, she violently hammered the pod's lid with her Semblance, tearing it off and sending it flying. She heard an odd bang and saw a flash in the corner of her eye before there was another bang and the door bounced off the wall. She turned her head to see Cinder floating in mid air and wreathed in flames, a horribly smug and satisfied look on her face. Turning further she saw the arrow embedded in Amber's chest and sticking out through the broken glass of her pod's observation window.

Her gaze went back to Cinder and her eyes narrowed. Her lips twisted into a vicious snarl and her fists clenched tightly, her ams, her whole body shaking under the strain of her anger.

"Pyrrha!?" Jaune called, a fearful waver evident in his voice.

_"This is her fault!"_ her thoughts screamed. _"If she hadn't attacked Amber this wouldn't have been necessary! If Qrow had stopped her sooner or not at all this wouldn't be happening!" _She was seething and her thoughts were becoming irrational. _"If Jaune had done his job...my Ichigo..."_

With a roar she leapt out of the pod, pulling Akuo and Milo to her with her Semblance as she charged towards Cinder. She didn't care what she had to do or how she had to do it, she was going to _dismantle_ that conniving bitch and smash that smirk right off of her face.

"Stop!" Ozpin commanded, putting his arms out and blocking her way. "Take Jaune and get out of here! Find Glynda! Ironwood! Qrow! Bring them here right away! The tower cannot fall!"

"I can fight her!" she growled.

He slowly turned his head and was a bit startled at the look on her face...the absolute fury and the tears. He looked right into her eyes. "You'll only get in the way and as you are right now you will die...and I would rather that didn't happen."

She took a shuddering breath before grabbing Jaune by the arm and practically dragging him down the long hallway and to the elevator. On the ride up his questioning was persistent but she could barely hear him and otherwise ignored it. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Silently she kept calling for Ichigo, getting more and more desperate by the moment when she got no response and that silent, empty feeling remained.

They didn't stop until they were well outside the building. She stopped near a discarded rocket locker that was partially stuck in the ground, doubling over and trying to regain her breathing. Jaune was still firing off questions, sounding kind of angry that he wasn't getting a response.

"Enough!" she rasped breathlessly as she punched the locker for emphasis, making the unit tilt to the side and the door to fly open. "There isn't time for explanations right now! We have to do what he asked and find Professor Goodwitch, the General, and Qrow."

Her outburst had shocked him enough for him to relent on the questioning but he wasn't happy about it. "I don't even know who this Qrow is," he said.

"Ruby's Uncle," she answered. "She told us about him remember? Huntsman that wields a big sword that turns into a scythe and wears a ragged red cape? If they're not on campus then they'll be in the city."

They heard a rumbling sound behind them, coming from the tower. Looking up, she saw what looked like a flash of flame in one of the windows and a moment later the Wyvern glided over and landed on the edge of the tower near it's summit. If Cinder was up there it meant that Ozpin had failed to stop or even significantly delay her.

"Did...did she get past Professor Ozpin already?" Jaune asked nervously.

"It would seem so," she said flatly, not taking her eyes off of the top of the tower. She readjusted her grip on her weapons. "Go and find Professor Goodwitch and the others," she told him.

"What? Wait...you're not going to fight her are you!" he asked incredulously. "Pyrrha you can't! She just went through Professor Ozpin...an experienced Huntsman! If she did that then she's too strong."

Irrationality began to creep back into her thoughts again as she snapped her burning gaze to him, pinning him like a deer caught in the headlights. Of all people, him, Jaune Arc, he was going to tell _her_ who she was capable of fighting or not? She caught herself before she could tell him just exactly what she thought about that and took a deep breath.

"I don't have to beat her Jaune, I just have to keep her occupied while you go and bring back help and the sooner you do, the better."

"Pyrrha this is crazy! You can't just..."

She didn't let him finish. Dropping her weapons she grabbed him but the top of his armoured chest plate, spun him around, and tossed him in the locker. She slammed the door shut and held it closed with her left hand while inputting coordinates into the keypad with her right.

"Pyrrha! Don't do this!" he pleaded.

"I have a job to do and so do you!" she yelled back. "Go and do it!"

She hit the activation button and stepped back as the rocket motor came to life and sent the locker flying off towards the city. As it disappeared from sight she sagged to her knees and did her best to try and pull herself together.

"I'm angry and I'm hurt Jaune, but I'm not stupid," she said, her voice trembling. "I know full well what my chances are against her but it doesn't matter. Someone has to face her and I'm the only one that can right now."

Her shoulders began to shake and she tried to stifle the sobs that threatened to erupt from her. "Are you still with me Ichigo? I can't feel anything but you said you'd always be there and I believe you. I love you."

She sniffled and swiped at the liquid filling her eyes. "Abandon your fear," she whispered as she lurched to her feet. "Move forward and never stop." She began to move towards the tower, drawing Milo and Akuo to her as she went. "You'll age if you pull back." She used her Semblance to instantly crush an approaching Atlesian Knight like it was a soda can. "You'll die if you hesitate."

Every step she took grew stronger and more determined, every breath more controlled, her sorrow and rage turning to resolve. "Those words mean something to me too Ichigo. I'll do whatever I can, whatever I have to in order to stop her."

She began to run towards the tower and whatever fate awaited her.

* * *

**AN:** To be honest the biggest part of the reason I split the chapter was for the cliffhanger. Evil I know, but I am a Horseman after all.


	7. Revelations of a Soul, Part I

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

**05/18/20:** Oops. Was fixing a few little typos and when I went to re-save the chapter, I ended up clicking on Chapter Six in the document manager instead. So, if you went to read it this afternoon you would have found Chapter Six here twice.

This screw up means I lost the author notes that were here but it's not like they were that important anyway, other than to say that in Chapter 6, I said 7 would be the last. Chapter 7 ended up being long enough that I split it in two so there is 8 in total.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 7: Revelations of a Soul, Part I**_

With a boom the elevator doors were blown into Ozpin's office and straight toward Cinder. Such a thing was not totally unexpected and they were deflected easily enough. However, judging by the look on Cinder's face she didn't expect her foe to be coming in so close behind them and she received a hard smash in the face with Akuo that sent her flying across the room and into one of the partitions between the windows with enough force to crater the wall.

When Pyrrha got to the elevator to go up she discovered that it was all but useless. Cinder had used her power to burn a hole right through the floor and the roof as she shot up through the tower. She had also damaged the cable so she used her Semblance to force the elevator car upwards. The terrible screeching and grinding noise it made didn't matter because she wanted Cinder to know she was coming.

As Cinder was peeling herself out of the wall the Wyvern squawked angrily and took off but it didn't leave. It looped around and came charging straight back. She hit the deck as it slammed into the building, tearing off the roof and sending the clockworks in the ceiling and a rain of broken bricks and concrete crashing down. She used her Semblance to avoid getting crushed by the metal debris and used some of it to deflect the non metallic fall out while Cinder shielded herself with a torrent of flames.

As the Wyvern circled back and landed on the side of the tower again, Cinder sent a gout of flame her way that she managed to deflect away from herself with Akuo.

"You and that silver eyed child have become thorns in my side," Cinder said with a scowl.

"Large and poisonous ones I hope," she countered.

"More like inconvenient and annoying than any real impediment but it is still interference that I cannot tolerate." A flame appeared in her palm.

"Going to use power rather than your own skills?" Pyrrha queried. "Are they lacking that badly or is this just your arrogance showing?"

"Thinking you have a better chance that way?" Cinder speculated with a smirk and in her ever sickening, condescending tone. The flame flickered out and with a showy sweep of her hands she manifested the two curved, obsidian broadswords she briefly showed that night in the CCT. "I suppose I could indulge you long enough to crush that notion and the false hope that comes with it."

She literally flew across the gap separating them, using the powers of the Maiden and figuring on the speed of her movements being too much for her opponent. It might have been a successful tactic if Pyrrha wasn't used to sparring with Ichigo. The tactic Cinder looked to employ was a simple one to her, strike with the sword in her right hand, expect it to be blocked by her shield, then strike with the left sword.

However as Cinder swung for the first strike her target had already moved a step forward and to the left and outside the arc of the blow. As her sword swished through empty space Pyrrha spun and planted a spinning kick into the Maiden's kidneys, adding to her own forward momentum to send her tumbling and bouncing across the floor.

If looks could kill she would have been vaporized by the furious scowl that Cinder wore as she regained her feet. She didn't fly back at her but strode towards her with a great deal of angry purpose. With a snarl she struck with her right blade, which was blocked with Akuo and followed with her left that was deflected with Milo in javelin form. The following blows came quickly and with a reasonable amount of power behind them. After a few strikes Pyrrha began to see a pattern.

Fighters who used paired weapons weren't uncommon, but there weren't a lot of them either. It could be a very hard skill to master. Many fought with their twin weapons the way she did with Milo and Akuo, one would be primarily used defensively, the other offensively. True experts of the craft were able to use their arms completely independently of one another and simultaneously which went against the natural inclination for one arm to be dominant. Whichever arm was the dominant arm tended to be used to lead most tasks a person performed while the other acted in a supplementary capacity and the dominant arm also tended to be stronger.

Even in her training to use an offensive weapon and a defensive shield she had to learn to make both arms act independently which was as much about training her mind to operate that way as it was about physical training. She also had to make sure that both arms were capable of equal strength and endurance. Masters of a paired weapon style were truly formidable since they could attack with either hand at equal strength and often when you were expecting one hand to be focused on defence. Some who didn't master it to that degree fought in a way where they would try and strike with both weapons almost simultaneously. There would be a lot of power behind the blows but strike range was limited and so was their ability to defend.

Somewhere in between was the way that Cinder was wielding her twin swords. When she struck with the one in her right hand, the other sword was held low and to the side a bit. It was the same for the right when striking with the left. Her skill was certainly sufficient that the lag time this created between strikes was small, but there was still a lag as she brought the other blade up into play even if her intent was to strike low.

Blocking another blow from Cinder's right sword she almost simultaneously struck forward with her javelin, jabbing it into the soft tissue in the front of the woman's left shoulder before she could bring the left sword into play. Her Aura took the blow so it caused no damage but it did disrupt her balance and attack rhythm. She immediately followed with a straight front kick that struck Cinder in the abdomen, sending her back a couple of steps. With a quick step forward she dropped low and spun, sweeping the Maiden's feet out from under her and sending her to the floor. She had to jump back out of the way to avoid a flailing strike from one of her swords.

If Cinder was furious before, she was absolutely livid now. "I am done playing with you!" she snarled. Evidently she hadn't being taking this fight seriously because when she attacked again it was with absolute purpose and focus and Pyrrha found herself having to work very hard and relying on all of her skill and newfound speed to defend herself. It was becoming quickly obvious that Cinder was actually very skilled with her weapons.

Unable to find an opening to strike back and try to break out of her defensive posture, she resorted to her Semblance. There was no shortage of things for her to use it on with the amount of metal debris laying around from the destroyed clockworks. She began hurling some of the smaller pieces at Cinder while still keeping up her defence. She tried to aim for her legs since a good way to disadvantage any opponent was to weaken their base and that meant targeting their legs and feet.

Not every piece she manipulated found its mark, she couldn't devote that level of concentration to it while still trying to defend herself, but even if they missed Cinder's legs they hit her elsewhere or served a purpose while being a near miss. Her Aura took the actually blows but the unexpected impacts disrupted her attack rhythm and the strength of the impact upset her balance and footwork allowing her to start striking back again, even if her attempts were deflected or blocked.

Cinder's temper boiled over with an angry shriek. She swung the blade in her right hand towards her, but three quarters of the way through that motion the blade dissolved into a stream of fire that she was hard pressed to get Akuo up in front of. A short burst she could block with relative ease and little discomfort but this was a sustained stream of fire and she could feel the heat growing as it radiated through her shield. If not for the long glove and sleeve that covered most of her arm and the metal bracer on her left forearm, the heat would already have become too much and it likely soon would anyway. She could feel the bracer starting to get warm.

She could smell singed hair and a lick of flame shot over the shield and across her left shoulder, going right through her Aura. She screamed in pain and her nose was assaulted by the sickening stench of her own burned flesh. She dove and rolled away and hurled Akuo at Cinder to by herself some time and space. With a fiery burst she knocked the shield away but was then knocked aside herself as one of the larger gears from the destroyed clockworks slammed into her. Before she could regain her balance she was hit by another one from the opposite direction, then another slammed into the back of her knees, taking her feet out from under her.

The largest and heaviest sprocket gear out of the bunch slammed down into her and rammed her to the floor and it was soon followed several more, burying her under a mound of heavy steel. She didn't believe that this would stop Cinder or even really keep her at bay for long, but she did hope for at least a moment to catch her breath. She didn't get it. A few seconds later a fiery burst sent the metal debris scattering across the room and Cinder rose up to her feet sheathed in fire.

She didn't waste any time and hurled Milo's javelin form at her, propelled by a rifle shot from its back end. She followed close behind, drawing it back towards her with her Semblance. The impact knocked Cinder off balance for just a moment and allowed her to close in and she attacked with the javelin as if she was wielding a staff. She had moved fast enough that she forced Cinder to reform both of her swords to defend herself. She needed to press the attack and keep her opponent on the defensive. She was clearly angry enough that she'd had enough and was looking to use her Maiden powers to end this and she needed to keep her occupied so that she wouldn't have a chance to do so.

Cinder didn't strike her as the type who would take a blow just so she could have that moment she needed to dismiss the weapons and call upon her power. She hoped that Jaune was doing what he was supposed to be doing and finding help because she didn't know how much longer she could keep this up. She could really use a little encouragement right now but it wasn't coming. She still couldn't feel anything of Ichigo's presence, it still just felt empty and it gnawed at her guts like she was slowly being eaten alive.

Cinder brought both of he blades down hard, a blow that if she hadn't blocked it with Milo it would have slammed down on top of each shoulder. There was a surprising amount of strength behind it but being taller than her opponent gave her an advantage in leverage to hold them at bay. They were stalemated for the moment but then Cinder gave her a sickening smile, dismissed the sword in her right hand and grabbed Milo. Her hand glowed and the metal quickly began to melt and within a couple of seconds she was holding a piece in each hand and had no time to move as Cinder's other blade hit her shoulder. Fortunately there was little momentum behind it but it was enough to knock her slightly off balance.

She tried to scramble out of reach and cried out in pain as something burned into the exposed flesh of her left leg above the protection of her armour. Cinder had flung the handful of molten metal at her and had a sadistically pleased look on her face at the result.

"I like that sound coming out of your mouth," she smirked as a small fireball appeared in each hand. "I want to hear more of it."

Her eyes went wide in horror and she dove to her right to avoid the first fireball. She had to immediately roll out of the way of another that struck behind her. She felt the wash of heat go up her back and could smell more singed hair. Ichigo would be so upset if Cinder messed up her hair. He liked it long and liked the ponytail she kept it in and she liked it when he would brush it out for her, even if it had just been in their inner world.

She shook her head to refocus as she scrambled to her feet, flinging some small metal debris at Cinder with her Semblance to buy herself a second or two. Was help coming? She wasn't about to give up but she knew there was only so much she could do and she had no designs on dying here today. She had to live so she could see Ichigo again. He had to still be there within her somewhere and she would do whatever she could to try and reach him again.

He _had _to still be there and self aware, her heart wouldn't let her believe anything else. He had done so much for her, he had helped her to free herself from those who demanded so much from her. He had helped her to start down the pathway of finding her true self, helping her become who she _wanted_ to be instead of who she was _expected_ to be. She wasn't going to give up on that and she certainly wasn't going to give up on him. She wasn't about to give up on someone she loved.

She twisted to avoid another fireball but another followed close behind it and hit her in the middle of the back, sending her back to the floor again with a pained cry. More singed hair and a line of agony across her back between the bottom of her corset and the waist of her skirt. Luckily the leather corset shielded her from taking some really serious damage but it was still very hot and judging by the way the bottom part of it now felt a little looser, some of the laces must have burned through.

She needed to strike back again. She pulled Akuo back to her and hurled it with all the strength she could muster before rising back to her feet. Unfortunately Cinder had manifested her bow and an arrow met the shield halfway to its target. The projectile sliced right down the middle of Akuo and split it in half, continuing on unhindered to pierce through her right ankle. The pain was excruciating as she tumbled to the floor once again with a choked scream.

"And so goes the myth of the Invincible Girl," Cinder taunted smugly. "If you hadn't gotten involved in my business you might have been able to live out that myth for a little while longer."

She struggled up to her knees and glared defiantly at her foe. "Someone had to try to stop you."

"Well you did try and you did better than most would have, I'll give you that," she smirked as she manifested another arrow and drew her bow.

She didn't want to let this bitch see her cry but she couldn't control the tears that began to stream from her eyes. Help wasn't coming, or if it did come it would be too late to save her. She could only hope that if it was coming that it arrived fast enough to prevent Cinder from getting away or causing anymore havoc. Maybe then she wouldn't have died for nothing.

"Ichigo," she called, her voice barely audible. She would never get to see him again, never feel his constant presence within her. She would never get to feel his arms around her as they sat and talked while watching the moon, never get to kiss him again or realize the dream they had of one day being together in the outside world.

"Time to meet your fate, Pyrrha Nikos."

She felt the arrow pierce her chest and the world went black.

* * *

_"Are you ready Ichigo?"_ she asked nervously.

_"Ready,"_ he answered, making sure she could feel his presence as much as possible.

In the next instant he felt like he'd been hit by lightning and everything went to hell. When he regained his senses again he found that he was no longer manifested in the inner world he had created, but he wasn't in his other form either, the all energy state that was the natural form of a soul. He was still in his human form but he was able to see the energy around him rather than _being_ that energy. It was like he was immersed and floating within an ocean of it. Most alarming however was the fact that he couldn't feel his connection to Pyrrha.

He tried reaching out to her, concentrating on what had become such a familiar and welcome sensation but he couldn't find it. He tried again, pushing as hard as he could to detect anything but again there was nothing. It didn't feel like he was blocked in some way either, it felt more like she wasn't there at all. There was only one circumstance where that should be possible and he refused to even consider it in the slightest.

He silently berated himself for thinking that he could so easily handle the intrusion of another soul and especially one as damaged as Amber's was. What he knew about how souls worked and how they interacted could be stored in a thimble, yet he had assured Pyrrha that he could handle whatever came from taking in the remains of the Fall Maiden's tattered soul. He thought that he had left that stupid, cocky, overconfident behaviour behind but apparently at least some of it was still there and there was no telling what it might have cost him. What it might have cost them.

He moved about looking for anything odd or strange, anything that didn't belong in this sea of his soul's power. Above and behind him he found a rift, a tear that reminded him of a garganta. The edges of it sparked with the fading yellow energy of the Fall Maiden's soul. He shook off the inclination to wonder how a soul less powerful than his, and a damaged one at that, could cause a tear like this. Speculation and a lack of knowledge had caused enough problems already and it wasn't like the how of it mattered much right now anyway.

Actual movement wasn't necessary to navigate through the energy but he more or less swam to the opening anyway as he willed himself toward it. He didn't know what to expect but what he saw on the other side of that opening definitely wasn't it. There was a large room or a void space pocket of sorts to be more accurate, and at its centre was a large ball of gently swirling orange energy. It was suspended in the centre of a structure reminiscent of a spider's web with numerous tendrils anchoring it to the walls, which of course was made up of his spirit energy.

While he had only regained awareness after Pyrrha was born and he became her soul, he had explored the expanse of what he was during the time before she could finally hear his voice and he had never encountered anything else at all let alone something like this. Yet, he didn't think that it was something that the contact with Amber's soul had caused or created. How could he have not known that this was here?

He entered the pocket and made his way towards the centre. It was a longer trip than it visually seemed like it should be and the closer he got, the denser and more..._violent_ his soul energy felt. It made him think of a junkyard dog guarding its property, watching and hovering right on the edge of attack and waiting for any unwanted intruder that should be foolish enough to come in. That in itself added to his puzzlement. What could this be that his soul was protecting it with such violent, killer intent at the ready and independent of his conscious knowledge at that?

He stopped within a few feet of it and took a close look, weaving in and out of the tendrils anchoring it and inspecting it from every angle. The were no openings or blemishes of any kind, not even where it was in contact with the tendrils that attached it to his energy. It didn't seem to be overtly feeding off of any of his energy either. There was no visual evidence of such and he couldn't feel any kind of a drain at all. Maybe it was so little that he couldn't tell but he didn't think that was the case either.

He moved closer and scowled slightly, one hand rubbing the back of his head. "Only one option left I guess."

He reached out and touched the orange sphere with his left hand. It was pleasantly warm, comforting even, and there was a soft, static tingle against his palm. Two things happened simultaneously. It was like the world suddenly came to a stop and went out of focus and then he suddenly knew what this sphere was, how it came to be, and why it was here hidden away inside the mass of his soul energy.

Things returned to normal and he found himself staring at the sphere in utter disbelief. His eyes moistening, he blinked a couple of times before the tears began to stream down his face. He closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath...and then smiled. Then he laughed.

"First a substitute Shinigami, now a substitute soul." He laughed again and opened his eyes, looking fondly at the sphere.

He felt a familiar presence coming up from behind him on the left and another from the right and it made his smile even wider. "So this is where you guys have been hanging out huh?" His smile faded and he looked up, instinct and a half heard, pained and pleading calling of his name grabbing his attention.

"Look's like the reunion will have to wait," he said darkly. "Someone needs an ass kicking."

* * *

The superior, condescending smirk on Cinder's face turned inside out. The arrow struck true in the centre of her foe's sternum but it only penetrated a half an inch or so. Her eyes then narrowed as she saw something peculiar. The Champion's head had loosely dropped forward like she was looking at the wound and the bare skin of the girl's upper chest, shoulders, and neck was marked with a faint blue pattern under her skin as if her veins had illuminated.

"That was close," a strange voice said. "I was almost too late." The voice came from the redhead but it obviously wasn't hers. It was male and double layered with a watery warble to it.

"What the hell?" Cinder wondered, adjusting her stance to a more defensive one.

Pyrrha's left hand reached up and grabbed the arrow just as she ignited it as she had been planning to do but it was pulled out before it could do any damage in the wound. There was a sizzling sound and the air took on the scent of burned fabric and flesh.

"You're a real piece of shit aren't you?" the voice said with obvious disdain. "Your defeated opponent is on her knees before you, unable to fight back and you want to murder her...by burning her alive from the inside out no less. It's too bad that hell no longer exists because I'd love nothing more than to carve out your soul and send it there screaming and begging for mercy."

"Who are you!?" she demanded. "_What_ are you?!"

"That's complicated," the voice answered, sounding almost amused. "I'm a lot of things, none of which would mean anything to you even if I tried to explain it. I suppose the one that might spark your imagination would be... Death God."

"There is no such thing," she scoffed.

"Oh but there was," the voice countered. "Back before this world even existed. Remnant's a good name for it by the way."

Before she could respond to that she heard pieces of metal begin to shift around on the floor and noticed the black haze around them that she had seen when bits were being thrown at her. This time however there was also the colours blue and red mixed in with it.

The two halves of the bisected shield lifted off the floor, the metal twisting in on itself and tearing as easily as if it were made of paper. Fragments flew past her and to the Huntress in training's down turned face. She could see very little of her face, part of her right cheek and lower jaw, but it was enough that she could see the small pieces fusing together and covering the bare flesh.

"But you see," the voice continued ominously. "Now there is only one Death God left and you've gone and pissed it off."

The girl's head raised and Cinder's heart skipped a beat and her face drained of colour. The redhead's entire face was covered by a skeletal looking mask, complete with teeth. It was the bronze of her shield, the scroll work that adorned it now mismatched and arranged in a haphazard non-pattern. There were three strips of dark grey, almost black metal that slanted up and over the left side of her forehead. That wasn't even the most disconcerting thing however, most horrifying were her eyes. No longer a vibrant green, but with sclera as black as the abyss and pupils that were a sickly yellow and filled with malice.

She quickly manifested and fired another arrow and it struck its mark, dead centre in the middle of the forehead between the eyes. The metal of the mask should have yielded to the arrow, being carved through like it had earlier, only this time it did no damage at all. The arrow shattered and disintegrated harmlessly.

"It's going to take a lot more than that for you to hurt her now," the voice warned. The possessed Mistralian began to rise from her knees, not under the power of her own muscles or even the influence of her Semblance in the manner she had flown into the room earlier. She simply rose to a standing position but her feet were at least a couple of inches off the floor. It was as if she was floating.

She held her arms out to her sides, blue energy forming in her left hand, black and red energy in her right and it gave off an ominous feeling that made the hair stand up on the back of Cinder's neck.

"You said it was time for her to meet her fate," the voice reminded her. It chuckled darkly. "If fate is a millstone, then we are the grist. There is nothing we can do. So I wish for strength. If I cannot protect them from the wheel, then give me a strong blade, and enough strength to shatter fate."

The energy held in each hand elongated and began to take shape, turning into two different swords, both black as night. In the right hand was a long blade reminiscent of a Khyber knife. The entire sword was nearly as long as its wielder was tall, with a long handle about the length of a forearm extending back from a wide base. There was a thin portion of the blade from base to middle along the back edge that was hollow.

The blade in the left hand was shorter, about the length of an arm with a relatively similar shape to the larger one, but resembled a trench knife more than it did a sword and had an enclosed handle that acted as a hand guard.

The sight of those blades unnerved Cinder and that was a feeling she didn't like. Somehow they didn't feel like normal blades to her. She had no idea why she felt that way, there wasn't something overt that was warning her, but she knew that they weren't just mere pieces of sharpened steel.

The Wyvern opened its enormous maw and roared at the new threat. Red tinted black energy began to shimmer around the large blade and Pyrrha's gaze snapped in the Grimm's direction.

"Fuck off ya over grown worm!" the voice yelled.

With a flick of the wrist the energy was released at the Wyvern. Cinder's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as the crescent shaped wave carved through the ancient Grimm's head, neck, shoulders, and a large portion of its back as if its flesh was made of tissue paper. The crescent continued on across the sky, decimating a large formation of Griffons. The remaining body of the Wyvern fell away from the edge of the tower, disintegrating and trailing black smoke as it went.

Her mind was having trouble processing what she just saw. That Grimm had to be hundreds if not thousands of years old. She wasn't sure that even she, now with the full power of the Fall Maiden, could have killed it and especially not that easily. The energy of that attack, that certainly was not the Semblance of Pyrrha Nikos. Whatever it was it had a horribly ominous feel to it that sent a chill down her spine. It was malicious and brimming with ill intent.

"Damn it," the voice swore, causing her to turn her attention back to its host.

The redhead's right arm was a mess. The long black glove and sleeve that she wore was shredded and burned and the arm was a blood dripping, raw looking mess. The damage didn't seem to prevent her from easily moving the arm around to inspect it however.

"I used as little power as I could get away with to kill that thing and I still made a mess." The voice sighed. "Then again, fine control never was my thing. She'll be really pissed and wanting to kick my ass."

"How?!" Cinder demanded. "That should not have been possible!"

The girl's head turned toward Cinder, cocking to the left. "You're still here? I thought you would have pissed yourself and run away after I killed your pet lizard."

Cinder's left eye began to twitch and she half screamed, half growled at her foe and fired a large gout of flames at her. Despite the damaged arm the large sword was easily brought up as a shield and the flames deflected around her target, doing no harm whatsoever.

"Is that it?" the voice mocked. "Maybe you should call your lackeys to come help you because so far I'm not impressed with you."

"Really?" she ground out angrily. "Well allow me to turn up the heat."

This time it was a wave of fire and she followed closely behind it, manifesting a sword in each hand. With a roar she swept her blades through the the spot where her enemy was standing, expecting to be chopping a flaming body into three pieces but there was no one there.

"You're so slow I could have toasted a bag of marshmallows waiting for you," the voice mocked from above. She looked up to see her enemy effortlessly standing in mid air and daring to adopt a posture of boredom and disappointment.

"And stop looking up her skirt ya pervert, she wouldn't like that."

Roaring in absolute rage Cinder took to the air, launching a furious assault with her blades. Every strike was blocked or deflected easily and the voice laughed and cackled, mocking and insulting her the entire time. She was beyond angry and in a near berserker fury. She would not be laughed at and she would not be mocked! She would make this...thing...whatever it was pay for trying to humiliate her.

In an instant the redhead had disappeared from her view, but she didn't have long to wonder where she had gone as the large blade came up under her left arm from behind and severed it at the shoulder. She screamed in agony and the pain caused her to lose focus and she crashed to the floor. She knew she couldn't stay down and lurched to her feet and spotted her enemy, still standing in mid air. The small blade in her left hand was already in motion, sending off a single, small blue crescent of energy. It came at her fast and she tried to twist out of the way but didn't quite make it as the projectile burned across her left eye, destroying it. She hit the floor screaming again, hand clutched to her face. The pain was excruciating and it felt like her skull was going to split.

Before the possessed student could reach her downed foe Cinder threw up a wall of flames. A wave of the large blade blew them away easily enough but the woman was already gone, leaving nothing behind but a puddle of blood and her severed arm.

"Damn it," the voice cursed as she gently floated back down to the floor and onto her knees once again. "I really didn't want to let her get away but I don't think Pyrrha's body can take much more. I've damaged it enough as it is and it's getting hard to move. Shit, I can't move anymore anyway. I'm spent." The voice sighed tiredly. "Thanks guys, I couldn't have saved her without your help. It's good to have you back."

That's when the lights went out. The mask slipped from her face and her eyes rolled back in her head as they returned to normal and her body collapsed to the debris strewn floor.

* * *

**AN:** Thanks for reading and please leave a review.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.


	8. Revelations of a Soul, Part II

**Disclaimer:** RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

Here it is, the actual, final chapter. When I started this I didn't expect it to be more than five chapters. Proves yet again that I'm terrible at estimating story length, but considering that I never plan or outline anything and just go where 'the flow' takes me, I guess it's inevitable.

With that said, here it is. Enjoy.

**A Spartan Encounter**

_**Chapter 8: Revelations of a Soul, Part II**_

Her awakening came with some confusion. As her heavy eyelids cracked open she was greeted with the sterile white decor that just screamed hospital room, and there was a steady beeping coming from her left. She was groggy but when her mind began to focus she confirmed that she was indeed in a hospital room. She felt a sense of muted discomfort and a heaviness that suggested she was on some amount of pain medication.

She began to take stock of the injuries she knew she had taken in the fight with Cinder and she could feel the dulled pain at the site of the various burns she had received. Looking to the end of the bed she could see her bandaged foot and ankle suspended in a sling and gently supported with a pillow. It didn't really feel too bad until she tried to move it a little and quickly decided not to do that again.

Her left hand and the entirety of her right arm were bandaged and she had no recollection of what had happened to them. The last thing that she remembered was an arrow headed for the centre of her chest and then everything went black. Trying to move her right arm was a very uncomfortable proposition so she used her left, hooking her thumb into the neck of her hospital gown and raising it up. There was a bandage covering her sternum so she had taken some sort of a hit there, but wouldn't an arrow have done more damage than what that dressing suggested?

Considering how easily one went through her shield and then her ankle, shouldn't one to the chest have done considerable damage if not outright killing her? And how _did_ she hurt her left hand and right arm? As groggy as she was she was positive that she didn't have those injuries when everything went black.

Not knowing was disturbing. Given what she knew the circumstances suggested that she should be dead so how had she escaped that end? She was grateful that she had but she would really like to know how. It seemed obvious that someone must have intervened and saved her but that seemed almost impossible considering how close that arrow was when she blacked out. It was wishful thinking that Ichigo had been involved in it since she still couldn't feel him. She still felt empty and very much alone.

She soon found herself drifting in and out of a light sleep, likely due to whatever medication they had given her. About an hour later the doctor came in to check on her and was glad to see that she was awake. She was shocked to find out that she had been unconscious for the better part of two days. The doctor detailed all of her injuries and was happy to say that they were beginning to heal very well as her Aura steadily recovered.

The doctor's only concern was with her Aura itself and the problem was something that she had not encountered before. Like all forms of energy, a person's Aura had a wavelength and just like fingerprints it was unique to each individual. At the beginning of each semester at the academies they did a test to determine the state of each student's Aura. They were able to chart its growth as well as how much Aura there was. It also allowed them to discover if there were any problems such as slow recovery and any side effects if a student had suffered a severe Aura depletion. As a matter of course they had checked her Aura when she was admitted and they had found a variance in its wavelength.

More than just a variance, it seemed that the wavelength was actually changing which was something that it was not known to do. The doctor opened a medical issue scroll and showed her the comparison between the wavelength graph from her last test at the start of Beacon's second semester and the one they had taken when she was admitted. They had been taking constant readings for the last twenty four hours and in that time her Aural wavelength had continued to change. She could see for herself on the overlay of the graph readings that it was indeed different.

According to the doctor it didn't seem to be having any negative effects on her. Her Aura readings were steadily approaching the level from her last scan as she recovered and seemed to be otherwise acting as expected while it worked to heal all of her wounds.

There didn't seem to be any reason for alarm but the doctor was hoping to get in touch with General Ironwood and have some of the medical personnel that had accompanied him to Vale have a look, an option made possible under the circumstances since many of them were helping out with the wounded from the attack. The Kingdom of Atlas was a world leader in Aura research, as Pyrrha herself had discovered not so long ago, so it made sense to have someone who was privy to that research take a look at her readings. For obvious reasons she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.

Unless the scientists in Atlas had found something that said otherwise, she knew from her basic education about Aura that exposure to another person's Aura wouldn't cause something like that, but she asked the doctor anyway. At worst, exposure to another Aura, say through a transfer to bolster her own if hers was very low or she was badly hurt, would only affect the wavelength reading for a few minutes. Perhaps maybe a few hours if it was a large transfer but it had never been seen to do anything like this.

She didn't tell the doctor the true nature of her contact with another Aura but she couldn't help but wonder if her brief contact with Amber's wasn't to blame for this. She had at least some of the Maiden's power left within her and her Aura, her very soul, had been damaged by what Cinder had done to her. Would that be enough to make her own Aura begin to change and did it have anything to do with her loss of contact with Ichigo?

If it wasn't harmful and her Aura was otherwise recovering and functioning normally that was good, but it was also still an unknown phenomenon and it worried her. She was afraid that this change was the thing that was keeping her from being able to sense Ichigo and she didn't even want to contemplate the thought that it was doing something harmful to him. That notion was going to eat away at her like a cancer if she couldn't keep a level head about it. Still, that possibility didn't prevent her from continuing to try and push contact with him and trying to get to their inner world.

The next morning after breakfast she got her first visitor. She saw a red hooded head peeking around the edge of the door to her room just as the doctor was finishing up checking her wounds, which were continuing to heal at a good and steady rate.

"Hello Ruby," she greeted the girl after the doctor gave her the okay to go in as she left.

"Hey Pyrrha. How are you feeling?" she asked as she sat in the chair beside the bed. She was carrying a bag that she set down between her feet and it made a heavy clunk as it contacted the floor.

"The doctor says my Aura is almost fully restored and I'm healing very well," she answered. "If all goes well there's a good chance I might get released tomorrow, although I'm not sure where I'll go."

"Oh, you can stay at my place on Patch!" Ruby excitedly told her. "My Dad has offered to take our teams in so that we can all stay together."

"That's very generous but I wouldn't want to impose."

"You won't be," Ruby assured her. "You'll be a welcome guest. It's safe and quiet on Patch and my Dad really wants to meet and get to know our friends and team mates. Yang says he's probably compensating a little because he missed us so much while we've been at school." Ruby grinned. "He denies it but I think she's right."

"Is everyone alright?" she asked.

"I'm okay and so is Jaune," she began. "Ren and Nora got banged up but nothing serious. Weiss is exhausted and her nerves are kind of shot. Her Dad showed up and tried to force her to go back to Atlas but she refused to go. It was a really loud and nasty argument and he said some really awful things to her and I think it took everything she had to not give in to him. I think he was going to have his bodyguards drag her onto his airship if Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood hadn't interrupted."

"That's awful," Pyrrha responded. "It must have been very hard for her. She has never said very much about her Father but I always got the impression that she was afraid of him."

"She is," Ruby confirmed. "She told us a little more about her relationship with him afterwards and defying him terrified her." Ruby smiled. "But she said that she has you to thank for finding the courage to do it."

Pyrrha was puzzled. "Me?"

Ruby nodded. "She said that when you told us what life as a celebrity had been like for you she found a lot of similarities in her own life. You were able to break away from everyone wanting to control everything you did and she said she was inspired by that. It was still pretty hard for her to do and she was really scared but she did it."

"It was hard and scary," Pyrrha admitted. "It still is at times actually but it gets easier, especially if you have someone to support you." She hadn't told them then and couldn't tell Ruby now that the only reason she was able to do it was because of Ichigo's encouragement and support. "What about Yang and Blake?" she asked.

Ruby seemed to wilt a little at the question. "During the fight Blake got separated from Yang and Weiss for a while and when they found her she was hurt. She ran into Adam Taurus, her old partner from the White Fang. They fought and he had stabbed her with his sword." She had to take a breath and it looked like she was almost on the verge of tears. "Yang lost it and attacked and he nearly cut her arm off. He would have if Weiss hadn't tried to freeze him with an ice glyph. They were saved by a Grimm of all things. An Ursa felt their fear and his hatred and charged in. They got away while he fought it and he didn't chase them. I think that's when the White Fang started to leave."

"Is she alright?!" Pyrrha asked, her own misery quickly shunted aside. "What about Blake? What about you?"

"The sword cut through her right bicep and into the bone," Ruby explained. "The doctors said the wound was clean. They operated and everything went good so it's up to her Aura now. Blake's stab wound wasn't too serious, thankfully the blade didn't hit anything vital. Yang was pretty down about it... I guess you would be if you almost lost your arm... and Blake was blaming herself because Adam and the White Fang was part of her past and she was going to run away again but Weiss wouldn't let her. They all started arguing and I couldn't stop them and..." she stopped and took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, calming herself back down. "Luckily my Dad showed up and he locked himself in the room with them for like an hour and made them work it out. Quietly. The doctors were kind of mad about all the noise."

"What about _you _Ruby? How are you doing?"

"I had just had a few bumps and bruises but they're all gone!" she said with renewed cheer. She quailed though under the look Pyrrha gave her. "I...was scared. I _am_ scared and have been since I caught back up with them at the airship docks and saw that Blake and Yang were hurt. This is the first time any of us have gotten seriously hurt and I wasn't there for them. Maybe if I had been things would have been different."

"Or maybe they wouldn't," Pyrrha said. "There's no way to know. Second guessing yourself doesn't lead to anything good. The important thing is that despite some of us getting hurt, we're all still alive." She just wished she could apply her own sentiments to herself when it came to second guessing.

"I guess you're right," Ruby agreed, perking back up a little.

"So where did you end up anyway after you jumped out of the airship...little Miss Reckless?"

"Ehehe," Ruby stammered, nervously rubbing the back of her head. "I ended up on top of General Ironwood's ship fighting Roman Torchwick and his partner Neo. I was...kind of at their mercy but I managed to make her parasol open and the wind pulled her off the ship." She started to talk faster, as she was prone to do. "Roman got really mad and kept hitting me with his cane...I got separated from Crescent Rose...and he was giving some speech about how he was a survivor and I think my Aura was about to break and then a Griffon ate him."

She blinked at Ruby, the girl looking on sheepishly as she processed the torrent of words. "I seem to remember telling you not to do anything _too_ reckless...but I suppose since you didn't get hurt I can't be too angry with you." That earned an embarrassed smile from the silver eyed girl. "So, what are things like at the school and in the city?"

"There's a lot of damage in the parts of the city closest to the school and to the school itself. Right now the school grounds are still off limits," Ruby answered. "Our professors and Uncle Qrow are clearing out the Grimm on campus and a lot of them ran or flew off after that dragon was killed. Oh! You were in the tower, did you see what happened? Did you kill it?"

"Wait," she said, halting the girl before she could get carried away. "How do you know I was in the tower?"

"We were at the airship pad when we saw the dragon die and a few minutes later Weiss's scroll rang," Ruby explained. "It was Jaune. He was all in a panic and said you were in the tower fighting Cinder and said you needed help. We left Yang and Blake with Ren and Nora and Weiss and I rushed over to the tower."

_"That fool!"_ she seethed. _"He didn't think I could take her on but instead of finding a trained and experienced Huntsman or Huntress like he was told to, he sends two other first year students?! His friends no less! I nearly got killed trying to buy them time for nothing!"_

"Uh, Pyrrha...are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"Jaune was supposed to be looking for Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, or your Uncle," she said tightly. "Not sending another inexperienced Huntress to die. I was trying to delay her until someone who might actually be able to beat her showed up."

Ruby gave her a puzzled look. "But you didn't die and you must have beat her or at least ran her off. When I found you I...I also found her arm in a pool of blood and she was nowhere around."

"I didn't die but I should have," she said, shocking the girl. "Cinder defeated me Ruby. She destroyed Milo and Akuo and shot an arrow through my ankle. I was at her mercy and she fired an arrow at my chest." She pulled the top of her gown down enough to show Ruby the bandage. "I blacked out before it hit me. The doctor said the wound was very shallow but that shouldn't be possible. That arrow should have sunk deep in my chest and killed me. I don't know why it didn't and I don't know what happened after that. The dragon was still alive perched on the edge of the tower at that time so I don't know what or who killed it."

"I don't know if it means anything or not," Ruby said as she picked up the bag she had brought and reached inside. "But we found this underneath you."

She pulled out a bronze skeletal mask that was obviously made from shards of her shield. Over the left side of the forehead were three nearly black, dark grey strips of steel. Her eyes went wide and she nearly forgot to breathe. She took the mask in both shaking hands, ignoring the discomfort from her still healing wounds and stared at it in shock and disbelief. The colour scheme was different but it otherwise looked just like one of the Hollow masks she had seen in Ichigo's memories.

She began to tremble all over, trying and failing to choke off a sob as tears started to roll down her cheeks. She hugged the mask to her chest, virtually clenching herself around it. She let out a mournful, strangled wail and began to sob openly.

"Pyrrha..." Ruby began, having no idea what was happening or what she should do. She ended up doing the only thing she could. She sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around her friend and held her as she cried.

* * *

Dusk was falling outside her window as she sat idly watching the stars become visible in the ever darkening sky. She was propped up in bed, her left leg drawn up and the mask laying atop her knee. She had worried Ruby pretty badly, crying so long and so hard that the girl was going to go find a doctor until she wrapped her arms around her and begged her not to. At that moment her friend was her lifeline, the only thing in that moment that was keeping her from losing her grip on her sanity. Her own adorable, rose scented, silver eyed teddy bear that she clung to for dear life until she was finally able to calm down.

She apologized to Ruby and told her that when she was able, and she wasn't sure when that would be, she would explain about the mask and everything that surrounded it and she would prefer to tell it to everyone all at once. She didn't know if she'd be able to tell it more than once. Ruby was concerned and curious but she accepted it. She also asked Ruby to apologize to the others for her, she was far too exhausted now to have any other visitors and she could always see everyone the next day after she was discharged.

Exhaustion was the truth, but she also didn't trust herself at the moment to hold her tongue when she saw Jaune. She would need to be a lot calmer before she saw him and she didn't want to say something that she would regret. She was angry but she wanted to know all of the particulars first. She wanted to know why he had called Weiss, and by extension Ruby, instead of doing what had been asked of him and she wanted to know if he even tried to after he made that call.

She turned her head and looked down at the mask. Ichigo had saved her. The only explanation that made sense was that somehow he had taken over her body like his Hollow used to do to him and he had saved her from that certainly fatal arrow. He had killed the Grimm Wyvern and he had fought and defeated Cinder. He had saved her but she still couldn't feel even the slightest trace of his presence.

Had he been there, aware but unable to contact her, or had he lost his sense of individual self and reacted on pure instinct like the part of him that was a Hollow would demand? Which one was the case now after what he had done? Did the fact that her Aural wavelength was changing mean that he was losing his self awareness or was it something else?

All she knew for sure was that she couldn't feel a trace of him no matter how hard she tried and it hurt worse than anything else she had ever known. She knew that Ichigo wouldn't want her to close herself off or basically just stop progressing. He would want her to continue to move forward and make the life for herself that _she_ wanted. The way she felt right now she didn't know how possible that was. If this was the way it was going to be from now on she could only hope that it got better with time but it was going to take a lot of time before that was going to happen, if it ever did.

* * *

Moving forward was a difficult thing, although she may have been expecting too much too soon despite knowing that trying to do so wasn't going to be easy or quick. Seeing everyone together after she got out of the hospital was good. Everyone was doing well, or at least as well as could be expected. Blake seemed to be wracked by guilt and Yang wasn't her usual pun-tastic self. She held her tongue but couldn't help but give Jaune a bit of the stink eye and she wasn't sure if he was cluing in as to why or not.

He got the clue on the ferry trip to Patch, when he came up to her after she had limped out of the passenger lounge to the rail to get some fresh air and clear her head. He followed her out and asked what was wrong...and she told him. She didn't yell or even raise her voice, but the hard quality of her voice more than got her feelings of displeasure across to him.

As it turned out he did find Goodwitch, Ironwood, and Qrow only a few minutes after he called Weiss. His landing spot had been fortunate in that it had almost taken him right to them. If he had went to them right away there was no guarantee that they would have arrived before Ichigo had to step in and save her. It was possible but not a sure thing. However they very likely would have arrived in time to prevent Cinder from ultimately getting away.

He was fortunate that she was able to contain herself as well as she did or else he might have found himself swimming to Patch. In an episode of his occasional thick headed thinking, he claimed he'd do the same again if it meant saving her. She told him in terms he couldn't help but understand that he _hadn't_ saved her, that she was literally a second from death when she blacked out and someone else had fought Cinder and run her off. If not for that he would have most certainly sent Ruby and maybe even Weiss straight to their death. It was close enough to the truth.

He was pale and looked sick...and it wasn't just from the rocking of the boat...when that reality finally sunk in. She supposed that she really couldn't or shouldn't blame him for anything, be it what happened in the vault when he was supposed to be standing guard, or in going and getting help. He was still a kid, just like the rest of them and had the added disadvantage of have the least experience out of them all. What happened that day was far and above anything they would have otherwise encountered as first year students barely into their second semester.

They docked in Patch late in the afternoon and headed directly for Ruby and Yang's home, so any shopping for necessities would have to wait until the next day. With no access to their dorm rooms everyone would need a few basic items and they hadn't been able to pick anything up on their way out of Vale either. Nearly everything was still closed down until a final sweep had been made to ensure there were no Grimm in the city, so anything they needed they would have to get from the handful of small stores on Patch.

While all of them needed things like a toothbrush and extra undergarments, she had the added problem of needing clothes in general. Everyone else could get by with their battle gear until they could get some extra clothes, but she couldn't do that. Besides not being great for everyday or casual wear, the laces up the back of her armoured corset had mostly been burned through and there were a number of burn holes in her skirt.

Currently she was stuck in a set of medical scrubs and shower sandals the hospital had let her have. Embarrassingly, she didn't even have any underwear. She could only imagine the teasing she would have gotten from Ichigo and she would have given anything to hear it no matter how many shades of red it would have made her turn. If Yang had been her usual self she surely would have teased her enough on her own to make up for it.

Ruby's enthusiasm about showing her where she grew up did manage to lift her out of her down mood a little bit, even getting her to smile a little as the girl babbled away. The island seemed to be just as she had said, quiet and peaceful and the roomy home nestled in the woods only amplified that sense. She liked her home city of Argus, but how many times while on the verge of being overwhelmed by everything about her life had she dreamed of having a place like this to go to and get away from it all, even for just a little while.

Ruby and Yang's father seemed nice, if not a little eccentric. It was obvious that he loved his daughters very much but wasn't above teasing and embarrassing them, especially if he could get the group as a whole to laugh. That seemed to be his aim, to help lighten the mood for everyone. As a veteran Huntsman it was safe to say that he had most certainly seen a lot bad things and had a lot of bad experiences and saw laughter as good a way as any to try and get through it. She had to admit that it did help a little but it didn't take long for her to slip back into her ever darkening and fragile state of mind.

She tried to not let it show but she wasn't too sure how successful she was being at that. She even allowed herself to be the butt end of a few jokes when she borrowed some clothes from Yang since nothing really fit. She ended up with a pair of shorts since anything long stopped well above her ankles, and a t-shirt that was a little tight. Her bust may not have been a big as Yang's but she was bigger through the shoulders so the overall effect was the same.

She also had to get a haircut, losing about half of the length of her ponytail and getting a few other spots trimmed out a little. Cinder's fireballs had singed her hair several times and it was looking a little ragged. Ren turned out to be pretty good with a pair of scissors, since trimming Nora's hair was long practised task of his.

There was a time where she might have been embarrassed by such things like the ill fitting clothes and messed up hair, even in the company of friends, but that was long past. Once again she found herself missing the teasing from within that she surely would have gotten. She had trouble sleeping that night, her mind refusing to stop searching for any sign of Ichigo or a way into their inner world.

It affected her mood all the next day, getting lost within that feeling that part of her was missing. Through a trip into town where she acquired some clothes, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and sweatshirt, and a pair of running shoes. The clothes were all mens since there were no women's clothes in the store to fit someone as tall as her, though fortunately that wasn't an issue with undergarments. Even right through lunch and the trip back she found herself apologizing several times for making someone repeat themselves because she was distracted or for lagging behind. She was on crutches to keep the pressure off of her ankle for another few days as it finished healing but she had been keeping up just fine the day before.

She could tell that they were all concerned about her and she hated making them worry. They didn't pry but it was clear that they didn't know what was bothering her or what to do about it. She wanted to tell them what was going on with her just as she had promised Ruby she would when she felt able, but she couldn't even begin to get the words out of her mouth without feeling like she was going to come apart at the seams.

Early on the third morning, again after a night with little to no sleep, she got up and quietly exited the house, mask in hand, and sat on a stump out in the front yard and idly gazed at the gradually lightening sky. The sound of the birds singing as the sun rose was something that normally would have put a contented smile on her face but it was barely registering in her mind.

With every day that passed she felt more and more empty, like the hole inside of her was growing and she felt so lonely despite being surround by her friends. This loneliness might even be worse than what she was feeling before she first heard Ichigo's voice, worse because it was accompanied by such a sense of loss and longing. Hearing him and getting to know him, falling in love with him, it had all brought so much to her life. So much that was good and that allowed her to become stronger and able to stand on her own. So much that had made her happy.

She had been wondering if maybe on that evening atop the wall in Argus if the pressure and the loneliness hadn't finally become too much for her and her mind had snapped. In an effort to cope she had manufactured a delusion and Ichigo became her constant companion, her confidant, her best friend. That reliable presence that she could count on to help her face her fears and learn to stand up and take control of her life. Someone who would joke and tease and treat her like a normal person, not place her upon a pedestal like an untouchable idol to be admired but never known.

But it couldn't have been a delusion. It was all too real, every detail too vivid to her senses and her emotions. She had seen and experienced things that her mind would not have been able to replicate in a delusion because they were unknowns to her. The whole spectrum of memories that were his, the sights that she saw there, even if some of them were familiar from the culture in Mistral. The names of all of his friends were names that were foreign to her, she had never heard any of them anywhere before.

She had never been held or kissed by a boy before and there was nothing in her memory and experience that could be recreated in a delusion to emulate how that felt either physically or emotionally.

It was real, all of it, and the pain of losing it was one she didn't think she could bear. She looked at the mask cradled in her lap and cursed herself as her tears fell upon it. She cursed herself for ever agreeing to try and take on the remaining powers of the Fall Maiden. After the excruciating pain of the initial contact with Amber's torn and ragged soul came the sudden and horrifying emptiness of no longer being able to feel Ichigo. No matter how desperately she called out to him and tried to find him, she couldn't. It felt like a part of her had been brutally torn out, leaving behind a gaping and bleeding wound.

But he had still been there somewhere and this mask was proof. She had been a heartbeat away from death and he had saved her. After getting over the shock and despair of seeing the mask for the first time there had been a brief spark of hope, but no matter how hard she tried she still couldn't find him or feel any trace of him. If anything she felt even emptier, even more hollow than she had before.

"Ichigo," she sobbed raggedly as she clutched the mask to her chest. "I'm sorry! It's my fault...I shouldn't have done it...I should have said no. If I had you'd still be here. I'd still be able to feel you. We could still train together. We could still sit by the lake or go swimming. We could go skinny dipping and you could tease me until I was a stuttering mess and I chased you around." She took a shuddering breath.

"We could hold each other and sit up all night talking and watching the moon. I could kiss you and tell you I loved you and you could tell me that you loved me. I could fall asleep on your shoulder and everything would be wonderful."

She sobbed heavily, nearly doubled over and rocked back and forth. The dam burst entirely and she wailed in agony. It was all she could do to breathe and not choke as the pain flooded through her in waves. She raised her face to the sky and screamed, raw visceral emotional agony echoed through the trees and shattered the otherwise quiet and peaceful morning.

She held the mask even tighter to herself, her voice was now ragged and barely audible. "Please Ichigo, I'm sorry! Forgive me...please come back...don't leave me alone. I don't want to be alone again..." Shaking, shuddering, her heart shattering, she raised her face to the sky once more.

"Ichigo!"

There was a thunderous crack and a column of brilliant blue light erupted around her, bringing her friends to a halt on the porch as they had all come scrambling out of the house at the sound of her screams. A strong wind buffeted them as the column of energy that pierced the heavens began to swirl around her. It seemed to push against them, against their very souls. It was a heavy feeling and it wasn't harmful but every one of them could instinctively feel the tinge of raw power that it emanated and they couldn't move against it to go to her.

Tendrils of black and red energy lazily rose up, twisting and flowing around her on their way upward where they mingled with the blue, gradually darkening it. Eyes wide and still streaming tears, Pyrrha couldn't move, could barely breathe. She could feel him! This was Ichigo's energy, his power! She didn't know what was happening, couldn't really even process it. All she knew was that she could feel him again and it was the greatest feeling in the world.

She was so enraptured by it that she didn't even notice when the vortex had become too opaque to see anything outside of it. Suddenly in the literal blink of an eye there was someone standing in front of her. Her heart very nearly stopped at the recognition of who it was.

Standing before her was Ichigo, dressed in the Shinigami uniform she had seen in his memories. The black shihakusho with a white harness like attachment that covered his shoulders, crossing his chest in an X shape and extending all the way down to his hips. On his left shoulder was a three sectioned plate adorned in red scales. Behind it and sticking up over his shoulder was the handle of his large sword. On his right hip was another similar plate with his smaller blade sheathed there. A white cloak with black markings was tied around his waist.

"Hey Red," he said softly, a gentle smile on his lips and loving warmth in his brown eyes. "Sorry for being a little late."

Her heart was hammering in her chest and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Despite that and her still healing ankle she managed to launch herself at him. He caught her and she wrapped her arms around him and held on with everything she had.

"Ichigo!" she cried, tucking her head down against his neck. "I couldn't feel you!" she sobbed. "I tried to reach you but I couldn't. I couldn't find you."

He held her a little tighter and blanketed her in the power of his soul. "I'm here now Pyrrha and I'm not going anywhere. We won't ever be separated again."

It took a few minutes for her to calm down enough to be able to speak again, though she was still shaking. She pulled back just far enough to be able to look at his face. "Where were you Berryhead? How are you able to be outside like this?"

"When what was left of Amber's soul made contact it was like I got hit by lightning," he began. "It ended up knocking me out of the inner world but I didn't go into the pure energy form of the soul, I stayed the way I was and was surrounded by my soul's energy."

"Has that ever happened before?" she asked.

"Never," he responded. "I even tried to exit the inner world in this form but it never worked. I found a tear that the contact with Amber must have made but that didn't make sense. How can you make a tear in a mass of energy like that? I looked inside the tear and there was a... pocket I guess you'd call it. Inside was a big ball of energy, it was a different colour, orange, and it was attached to my energy. It looked like it was sitting in a spider's web."

"And you never knew anything was there?" she was worried about what this might be.

"It was hidden within my own energy, completely blanketed by it so I never knew it was there. I couldn't feel anything coming from it but the closer I got the heavier and more ominous my own energy felt. It was protecting it. I reached out and touched it and in a flash I knew and understood what it was and why it was there."

He took both of her hands in his and he was smiling. She gave him a puzzled look. "Ichigo?"

"What I found was your soul," he told her. "Your true soul Pyrrha." Her eyes went wide. "It's not self aware like I am...and it's two souls that merged together to become one. It's actually a perfect fit. With no connection to them you grew up to have similar traits to both of them."

"You know who they are!" she gasped.

He nodded. "It's Orihime and Tatsuki. I think when the dimensions were falling apart Orihime tried to use her power to stop it or affect it somehow but there's no way that she could, not even with the desperate resolve she must have felt. In the end I think she reached out for the two souls she had the deepest feelings for and that was me and Tatsuki. They always had a connection, Tatsuki could feel Orihime's presence when she was in any of the dimensions except Hueco Mundo. They ended up wrapped up in my power and we survived, maybe because of my hybrid nature, or because of how much power I have. Maybe because of Orihime's power...or all of it together. I don't know. However we did it, we did survive and eventually came to you. The Princess and her Dragon, together as one just as they should be. This is your true soul Pyrrha and I can't think of a better or more fitting one for you."

Tears were streaming again but they weren't tears of sorrow. She touched his face. "So this means that you can come out into the world now."

He nodded. "Not just come out, stay out. We spent the last few days disconnecting your true soul from me and embedding it in you. I still have a soul connection to you and I think we can still share an inner world but I can now live on the outside. What we hoped would happen some day has Pyrrha. We can be together for real. Well, more real lets say."

She closed her eyes and smiled in pure bliss. Then stopped and her head tilted. "You said we. I thought my real soul wasn't self aware?"

"It isn't," he grinned.

Her eyes widened. "Your spirits?! You found your spirits again?!"

"They were guarding that soul," he explained. "And waiting for the time to come when it would be discovered and could take my place. Apparently we were on the right track, getting you to be able to tap into and use my power would have gotten us there eventually. Trying to take in the rest of the Fall Maiden's power just sped things up."

"It was a painful shortcut," she lamented. "I thought I had lost you. It hurt so badly. When I figured out that you had saved me from Cinder it hurt even worse when I still couldn't feel you."

He smirked and thumbed a line of tears from her cheek. "I'm not that easy to get rid of. I heard you call out for me and we took control of you." He laid the palm of his hand gently over the centre of her chest. "We were almost too late. We used Blut Vene to stop the arrow but it had already slightly pierced your chest." He lightly grasped her still bandaged left hand. "We pulled it out just before she made it burn but we hurt your hand by doing that." He gently grasped her other hand. "This happened when I launched a Getsuga Tensho to kill the Grimm. I used as little power as I could to kill it but it was still more than your body could take. I'm sorry, the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you."

"Don't be," she said softly. "I'm alive and you're here, that's all that matters." She frowned slightly. "But, how are you able to have a body in the physical world, You're a soul right?"

"It's because of the way Remnant was formed from the other worlds," he said. "Except for the world of the living, all of the others were made up of reishi which is a type of spiritual energy. Everything, even a soul body was made of it. Plus the amount of other spiritual energies was pretty much immeasurable. Remnant feels just like a spiritual dimension to me so I was able to form my spiritual body outside of you."

She gave him a bit of a smirk. "I thought you didn't know much about all that stuff?"

"I don't," he admitted. "But Tensa does. He explained it to me."

"Tensa? she asked.

"Both spirits are Zangetsu so we decided they needed names of their own besides that. The Old Man decided to use his bankai name rather than any of the names that come from the Quincy Emperor and the Hollow decided Shiro was good. Obvious, but good."

"I'd like to meet them sometime," she smiled.

"Don't worry, you will," he promised.

"How bout now," another voice chimed in.

Suddenly there was Ichigo's negative image twin standing to his right. She 'eeped' and would have stumbled back if Ichigo hadn't still been holding onto her.

"And of course the name's obvious," Shiro snarked. "Gotta keep it simple so an idiot like you will remember. You've always been shit at remembering names King."

"You sure it's not so that _you_ would remember it?" Ichigo jabbed back.

"Even he isn't so dense as to forget his own name," another voice spoke as Tensa appeared to Ichigo's left. "Though I could be wrong."

"Go stand on a flagpole," Shiro said with a smirk. "Oh wait, you _like_ doing that."

Ichigo just shook his head and she smiled. "I'm honoured to finally be able to meet you both," she said.

"The honour is mine," Tensa said. "And I must thank you. I have not seen Ichigo this happy in a very long time."

"Yeah, thanks for making this dumb ass finally notice the opposite sex," Shiro said, thanking her in his own way. "Too dense to notice all the hot babes around him until the hottest of the bunch comes along. At least he finally woke up."

Pyrrha blushed furiously.

"Seriously," Shiro said, and he was being completely serious, momentarily stunning his counterparts. "Thanks. Even I don't like seeing him all moody and unhappy and thanks to you he's anything but. He told you how it would rain in his soul and why...I don't think we're gonna have to worry about that much."

He had told her and she'd seen and felt it in his memories so she knew _exactly_ what it meant. It made her heart swell to think that she was able to keep that rain from falling in his soul. In her own way and from her own perspective she could understand it.

She smiled. "He makes me very happy as well and I promise you both that I will do my best to make sure that rain never falls."

Shiro smirked and Tensa nodded his approval. "It's time Ichigo," he said. "We can all talk more later."

"Right," he acknowledged.

She gave him a quizzical look as his spirits disappeared. "Time for what?"

"Time to finish this," he answered. "I had to push all of my spirit energy out of you so that your own soul could take over and now I have to pull it all back into myself. Besides, I think your friends are all getting more than a little anxious out there and I don't want any of them to try and get in. If they touch my power as it is right now it will kill them." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, giving her a gentle kiss in the process. "You however, are the only person on Remnant who would be immune to it. Now, hang on tight, this could get a little intense."

She indeed held on tight as the swirling energy stopped and began to swirl in the other direction, flowing back into his body. She felt tingly and, for the lack of a better word, supercharged. It was as if every single nerve in her body was firing at the same time and she could feel the sheer enormity of his power. It was unbelievably vast and potent, but she felt nothing but warm, safe, and protected. Even more so, she felt loved. She could feel his love for her coming through his power.

She lost track of how long they stood like that but she certainly wasn't complaining about it. Finally, with a resounding, thunderous crack it was all over, but they still didn't feel inclined to let go of each other.

"Um...e-excuse me," the voice of Ruby Rose interrupted.

They turned to see her standing a few feet away, looking a bit sheepish and with her face a little red at the show of affection. She, like all of the others had retrieved their weapons at some point...and were all still in their nightclothes. It wasn't surprising that they would arm themselves after that show of power and now a stranger was suddenly there holding their formerly sobbing and screaming friend in his arms.

They had come out into the yard with Ruby advancing to within a few feet. Her father and her dog Zwei were standing a couple of feet to her left and had their eyes glued on him. To her right was her Uncle Qrow, the only one not in his sleepwear. He had arrived not more than a minute before. He had seen and felt the vortex of energy that had announced Ichigo's arrival all the way from Beacon.

"What's going on Pyrrha?" Ruby asked. "Who is he?"

They grudgingly moved apart. "This is Ichigo Kurosaki," Pyrrha answered, her voice getting steadier. "He's my boyfriend."

"...Whaaaaat!?" was the collective response from most of those present.

"And you probably won't believe it, but up until a few minutes ago he was also my soul," she added. Everyone went dead silent, having even less of an idea of what to say to that.

"I think you broke them," Ichigo quipped. "Reincarnation is a fact," he explained briefly. "I'm an anomaly to the process that just happens to remember its previous life."

"That's impossible!" Weiss blurted out.

"Not as impossible as you might think," Qrow said as he pulled his flask out of his pocket. "Though the soul outside of a body thing is different."

"Qrow!" Taiyang admonished.

"What?" he took a drink. "It's the truth."

"Maybe it is but there's a more pressing concern at the moment don't you think?" Taiyang turned to Ichigo and Pyrrha. His eyes widened as Ruby stepped away and walked towards them. "Ruby wait!"

The little reaper stopped and looked up at her friend. "Is it true Pyrrha?"

"It is," she answered. "I wouldn't lie to you Ruby, to any of you. I just couldn't say anything...to anybody. They would have thought I was crazy. It's not like I could have proved that I was able to talk to my own soul."

"Is this the guy you were talking about that day in the dress shop?" Nora blurted. She then clamped her hands over her mouth, remembering too late that it had been told to her as a secret.

Pyrrha smiled. "Yes it is." She winked at the girl, letting her know that her secret was still safe. "I wouldn't have become who I am without him and I wouldn't have survived my fight with Cinder if he hadn't taken over and fought her." She activated her Semblance and the mask rose from the ground and to her hand. She looked at Ruby. "That's why I reacted the way I did when you showed this to me. We had lost the ability to talk to each other shortly before I got to the tower to face her, I couldn't even feel his presence anymore. When I saw the mask I knew he was still there somewhere but I still hadn't been able to feel him."

"That's what had you so down and distracted," Blake said.

"Yes," she answered. "That display of power you just saw was him finding a way to come into the outside world."

"That display of power sent all of the remaining Grimm around Beacon running for the hills," Qrow told them. "I've been a Huntsman for a long time and I've never seen a Grimm look scared, but they were. They couldn't get away fast enough."

"This is just...just..." Weiss couldn't find the words, and that was a feat in itself.

"I've always been an anomaly," Ichigo said. "So believe me I get what you're saying. After a while I've gotten used to weird. It's kind of normal for me."

"Am I the only one concerned here?" Taiyang cut in.

"It's okay Dad," Ruby said. "If Pyrrha says everything's okay then it is. I trust her." She gave her friend a smile. She was glad to see that she looked happy again.

"I'd be happy to explain it all," Ichigo offered. "But it's gonna take a while. It's not a short story."

"It never is," Taiyang sighed. He glanced at Qrow who shrugged as he reached for his flask again.

"If he was a threat he could have wiped us all out already with power like that instead of just getting close with the redhead," he took a drink. "And if the Grimm are scared of him I'd be more than interested in finding out why."

Taiyang sighed. "Alright. You might as well join us for breakfast and then you can tell us your story. But I reserve the right to be concerned."

Ichigo nodded and Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you."

Taiyang smiled back. "If you can smile like this now after the way you've been feeling for the last few days then how can I not at least listen to what he has to say?" He jerked his thumb at Ruby. "Besides, I think this one was about to make with the sad puppy dog eyes if I didn't and no one can withstand that."

"Dad!" Ruby whined indignantly.

They all turned and headed back to the house. Pyrrha and Ichigo shared a chuckle knowing that for the whole way Ruby's eyes were glued to the massive sword on his back.

* * *

Evening found them sitting on the front porch, wrapped up in a blanket and gazing at Remnant's shattered moon. It had been a long day and the story had indeed not been a short one. To give things context he had to explain what he was and what the world had once been and having Tensa and Shiro make an appearance had largely put to bed any doubts that he was speaking the truth. Initially it had scared the hell out of everyone...Shiro had made sure of that.

It was pretty funny actually. They were getting back to things after a slight break. Ren and Nora were sitting at one end of the couch, Jaune at the other and Weiss had been sitting in between. She was just sitting back down when Shiro suddenly appeared, in her seat, with one arm over Nora's shoulder and the other over Jaune's. Weiss ended up sitting right in his lap.

_"Hey there!"_ Shiro had said by way of greeting.

There were three high pitched shrieks. Nora ended up in Ren's lap with her arms wrapped around his head and the poor boy headed for heavenly suffocation in her cleavage. Jaune bailed out over the side, and Weiss shot halfway across the room, face as red as Ruby's cloak and pointing a shaking arm at the Hollow and stuttering in indignation. Shiro was laughing his head off of course.

_"Lacking in manners as usual,"_ the Old Man had said as he appeared right behind Weiss...who shrieked again and ended up in the chair next to her, sitting across Ruby's lap. That caused Shiro to laugh even harder and if you looked closely you would have seen a slight upturn to Tensa's lips. Of course, by reflex Ruby had wrapped her arms around her sudden lap acquisition and turned equally as red. After everyone got the laughs and teasing out of their system the atmosphere lightened up considerably and things continued on.

After that break he and Pyrrha told the story of her first being able to hear him and everything that came after, the way that it eventually began to change her life for the better. When it came to the existence of the Seasonal Maidens none of the students were prepared to believe that it was true until Qrow told them that not only was that fairy tale true, but so were several others. Which ones, he promised to tell them later. Needless to say by the time dinner rolled around they were all rather floored by everything they had heard and that included how Ichigo had saved Pyrrha, killed the Wyvern, and defeated Cinder.

Currently while they were sitting outside, Tensa and Shiro were telling a few stories to an enraptured audience. When Ruby had heard the short version explanation of what a Zanpakuto was she almost passed out in wonder and excitement and had begged to hear more. They had to promise to tell her more later so they could carry on with the rest of their explanation and that story was the first one on tap. Thus, they had some time to themselves.

"Shocked the hell out of everyone but it actually went pretty well," Ichigo said.

"It did," Pyrrha agreed. "I think we're going to be answering a lot of questions for a while though once they've had a chance to think all of it over."

"So will Qrow," he said. "I think us talking about the Maidens forced his hand and I'm getting that _'we've only seen the tip of the iceberg'_ feeling."

"Given the things you've told me and what I've seen in your memories I'm inclined to agree," she said. She smirked. "You _are_ a trouble magnet after all."

He laughed. "Can't deny the truth I guess. Although, I could do with a little _less_ trouble."

"C'mon," she said, nudging him with her shoulder. "We both know you like the fights. Even I've had to admit to that."

They looked at each other and both spoke at the same time. "Kenpachi," they accused, then broke out laughing.

"So if I'm a trouble magnet and your Semblance is Polarity..." he began.

"Don't say it," she warned.

"Does that mean that we'll be _'sticking together'_?"

She groaned. "That is a Yang level pun if I ever heard one."

"I thought you'd be immune to them by now," he laughed.

"There is no immunity to Yang's puns," she said. "Even Ruby isn't immune."

"Speaking of Yang, things might get a little interesting in a day or two," he began. "Shiro's gotten it into his head to knock her out of the self pity she's fallen into over nearly losing her arm. He'll either drive her nuts or snap her out of it and she'll try to kill him. I think the Old Man is going to do the same with Blake, though his approach may not be as potentially violent."

"I hope it helps them," she said. "She tries not to let it show but Ruby is worried about them. She feels responsible since she wasn't there with them when they faced Adam Taurus."

"I think it will work out, " he said. "I can be pretty stubborn and they used to straighten me out all the time. Although, it usually involved kicking my ass."

"I probably would have needed mine kicked somewhere down the road if you hadn't showed up this morning," she said sombrely. "I don't think I would have been able to pull myself out of it otherwise if I really had lost you."

He pulled her a little closer. "I wish I could have come out sooner but I couldn't leave until we anchored your true soul in place of mine. Unfortunately it wasn't something that could be rushed. I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that."

"But I rely on you too much Ichigo," she lamented. "Without being able to feel your presence I was falling apart. I couldn't stand on my own. I haven't been able to do _anything_ without knowing that you were there."

"Pyrrha, you were eleven years old when the fame machine started up around you and you had scouts and agents starting to run your life," he began. "You had barely started to learn what it even meant to stand on your own or to set your own direction in life. Hell, they even kept you shielded from adversity and learning how to cope with the negatives that come with life on your own. Even after you finally were able to hear me and you started to try and take control of your life they tried their damnedest to make sure you couldn't."

He turned his head so he could look into her beautiful green eyes. Eyes that were full of uncertainty and guilt. "The night you put your foot down with your agent and sponsors was the night you started to take back control and that was what? Six months ago or so? You've only just gotten started Red and at that you've already come a long way. It's gonna take time to get to where you want to go."

"But I shouldn't have to rely on you so heavily," she protested. "It isn't fair to you."

His hand appeared out from under the blanket and his finger booped her nose. "Enough of that," he chided gently. "You can rely on me as much as you need to, anytime you need to. You're not the complacent type Pyrrha, it's not like you're going to stop trying to become stronger and more self reliant and sure of yourself. You will and I'm going to be beside you the whole way. That's what friends do for each other and it's certainly what people who love each other do." He pressed a gentle kiss upon her lips. "And there is no doubt that I love you."

She returned the kiss and leaned her forehead against his. "I love you too Ichigo. I just felt so helpless. I felt alone, more alone than I ever had and I couldn't take it."

"You'll never have to worry about that again Pyrrha." He jerked his head towards the house. "You've got a bunch of good friends that care about you and you've got me who loves you more with every minute I spend with you."

She snuggled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I feel the same way Ichigo. I love you so much. I'm so happy that we're able to be together now out in the world. Things may be a mess right now but at least we're together."

"My instincts are screaming that whatever Cinder was up to is just the start," he said. "But whatever it is we'll find a way to deal with it and put an end to it together and build the kind of life we want. Nothing is going to stop us or get between us."

"The Huntress and the Death God," she mused. "Future heroes of Remnant." She found his hand under the blanket and took it in hers. "Maybe we'll become Remnant's next true fairy tale."

"Maybe we will at that," he said. "But I'll take as many moments like this as I can get."

"Mmm...me too," she agreed.

"...and skinny dipping with you. That's pretty good too. And don't forget about shower time."

"Perv berry."

"Exhibitionist."

"Only for you Berryhead, only for you."

They settled in and gazed at the broken moon, quietly revelling in each other's warmth. This world may be the end result of a battle he won but a war that he couldn't, and it may be a world that tried to make her something she didn't want to be. But they had a chance to be who they wanted and do what they wanted, together, and they would make the world bend to _their_ will.

The Huntress and the Death God?

Damn right. Remnant won't know what hit it.

* * *

**AN:** In my own estimation, endings are always my bane. Hopefully this isn't too bad.

I always like to try to be a little different with the stories I write and I thought this idea certainly fit the bill. I really love the character of Pyrrha and I just wish we could have seen what she would have looked like in the current animation. She would be spectacular.

Needless to say I had a lot of fun writing her in this story,,,when my mind wasn't threatening to go into a total meltdown at least. Thankfully I got through that and have finally returned to something that resembles normal.

So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story as a whole. Let me know what you think.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.

Now, I will have to go back and reread the existing chapters for A Chance Encounter so that I can get back into that. Frankly, I have no freaking idea what to do next with it but I'm sure something will worm its way out of my brain. I hope.


End file.
